I write this blog because over 60 years of ministry I have heard people say, "He thinks", "She things", or "You think" ....thousands of times. And 99% of the time, the guesser was at least 90% wrong.
The best way of knowing someone's mind is to ask them and then compare what they say with their past history of doing. They only tell you what they want you to know, and never what they don't, but it's a starting place for analysis. Reviewing their past history, which you already know, is better than consulting a room full of third person guessers. And when you are considering your own or someone else's true feelings, life, death or eternity, you had better not neglect to hear that book full of quotes from God's word through dozens of His prophets, apostles and disciples who wrote volumes about God's will, truth, salvation, and human nature.
The best way of knowing someone's mind is to ask them and then compare what they say with their past history of doing. They only tell you what they want you to know, and never what they don't, but it's a starting place for analysis. Reviewing their past history, which you already know, is better than consulting a room full of third person guessers. And when you are considering your own or someone else's true feelings, life, death or eternity, you had better not neglect to hear that book full of quotes from God's word through dozens of His prophets, apostles and disciples who wrote volumes about God's will, truth, salvation, and human nature.
"If any man ... consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ .... He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions ... wherefore cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth ... from such withdraw thyself." 1 Tim.6:3-5. "Doting about questions" means to be enthralled to obsession with giving your opinion on every question. Which, of course, usually stirs up "envy, strife, anger, and evil surmisings". All of which lead to "perverse disputings" among "men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth."
"Evil Surmising" is simply "false supposition", or inaccurate speculation. In other words ... unfounded guesswork ... evil guesswork.
"Evil Surmisings" have been planted in the receptive minds of foolish men since the beginning of time ... and before that by Lucifer, which caused him to be cast out of heaven where Eve found him under the forbidden tree. He was the first user of "evil surmisings". Then he passed it on to Eve when he asked her a leading question...
"...Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every (lie) tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, (God didn't say that) lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." He twisted what God had actually said. Even accused God of lying ... and then professed to know what God was thinking. That is evil surmising ... He was telling Eve that God was just selfish and surmised that God didn't want any competition to His exalted position. He is still using his same old twisted lies and delusional guesswork to mislead the weak with his evil surmisings. If we are not consistently seeking God's will we make ourselves vulnerable to evil surmisings, by Satan and by his his followers.
I saw an advertisement of an upcoming TV special they tagged, "All About God". A "documentary" on God has to be full of "surmisings", which, on its face is an "evil" endeavor. "All about God" is too big a subject for a measly human to cover with any accuracy whatsoever. We can't even accurately write all about another person and get it right.
It is, at the least, juvenile and an unprofitable waste of time to surmise what other people may be thinking, what they intend to do, and their unknown reasons for acting as they do, or what we think are their motives. If we could accurately, analyze all of the possible reasons why someone says or acts the way they do, the unimaginable range of possibilities would fill a thousand pages. There is no way, no matter how convinced one may be, of the accuracy of their guesswork, to know what someone else is thinking. A group of friends sitting around trying to figure out why Joe or Sue said, or did, what they said or did, is common but unproductive. "Well maybe he thinks his wife thinks he thinks she doesn't love him". "Maybe, but I think he thinks his wife thinks he doesn't love her." "Well that may be but I think they think we think ..." These Guessing Games, of human nature, head off in 360 degrees of different directions, each one aimed around the world on vastly differing, though parallel, trajectories. So the first thing to do to know what is on some else's mind is to ask them. Even then, the whole truth seldom comes forth. Historic facts, prayer and a person's past actions are far more valuable in charting one's course, in dealing with other people, than guessing.
We must follow our Lord in all human relationships and in judging other peoples' intentions which are known only by Him and by themselves. Life is complicated enough without guessing what someone is thinking. Listening to the guess work of other evil surmisers is even less productive. Guessing is seldom accurate ... though to many evil surmisers, their guessing is gospel. It's why Jesus told us, "Judge not, that ye be not judged..." Matt.7:1.
It is, at the least, juvenile and an unprofitable waste of time to surmise what other people may be thinking, what they intend to do, and their unknown reasons for acting as they do, or what we think are their motives. If we could accurately, analyze all of the possible reasons why someone says or acts the way they do, the unimaginable range of possibilities would fill a thousand pages. There is no way, no matter how convinced one may be, of the accuracy of their guesswork, to know what someone else is thinking. A group of friends sitting around trying to figure out why Joe or Sue said, or did, what they said or did, is common but unproductive. "Well maybe he thinks his wife thinks he thinks she doesn't love him". "Maybe, but I think he thinks his wife thinks he doesn't love her." "Well that may be but I think they think we think ..." These Guessing Games, of human nature, head off in 360 degrees of different directions, each one aimed around the world on vastly differing, though parallel, trajectories. So the first thing to do to know what is on some else's mind is to ask them. Even then, the whole truth seldom comes forth. Historic facts, prayer and a person's past actions are far more valuable in charting one's course, in dealing with other people, than guessing.
We must follow our Lord in all human relationships and in judging other peoples' intentions which are known only by Him and by themselves. Life is complicated enough without guessing what someone is thinking. Listening to the guess work of other evil surmisers is even less productive. Guessing is seldom accurate ... though to many evil surmisers, their guessing is gospel. It's why Jesus told us, "Judge not, that ye be not judged..." Matt.7:1.
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