Proverbs Daily Devotional: Day 11
“Whoever seeks good finds goodwill, but evil comes to those who search for it.”
Proverbs 11:27
This quote showed up recently on one of my friends’ social media pages, and it ties in perfectly with today’s Proverb devotional. Whether he said it or reposted it from somewhere else I’m not sure, but it is attributed to Denzel Washington. Listen to what it says:
Easy to spot a red car when you’re always thinking of a red car. Easy to spot opportunity when you’re always thinking of opportunity. Easy to spot reasons to be mad when you’re always thinking of being mad. You become what you constantly think about. Watch yourself.
What this quote speaks of, and what today’s Proverb speaks of, refers to our reticular activating system. This is a system in our brain that is trained to recognize what is relevant to us. The best example is the red car mentioned in the quote. Forget ‘red,’ but have you ever noticed that when you start driving a car of a certain color, you start noticing cars everywhere that are that same color? This is your reticular activating system at work – recognizing what is relevant to you. It doesn’t just work with visuals – have you ever been in a crowded room with a lot of people talking and creating that conversational ‘hum’ or ‘buzz,’ that your mind ignores, until you hear your own name. Suddenly, you tune in. That’s your mind, recognizing what is relevant to you.
It works with visual, it works with audial, it also works with your mental and your spiritual states. You become what you constantly think about. Aristotle said it this way – ‘we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Listen to these ideas one more time. You become what you constantly think about. We are what we repeatedly do. “Whoever seeks good finds goodwill, but evil comes to those who search for it.”
What are you searching for? What are you seeking? Every day you spend time on this challenge, reading and reflecting on the Word of God, you are telling your mind that this is relevant, that this matters. And your mind will get that message, and start looking on its own for like-minded thoughts, attitudes, and habits that are more in line with the Word of God! Seek God in these pages, seek goodwill, and you will find an abundance of both.
—Pastor Jeff
