PROVERBS 23: WHERE THE MIND GOES, THE MAN FOLLOWS

Proverbs 23 gives 13 more sayings of the wise. I want to expound on one of them here, and you can dig into the whole chapter to discover them all.

Proverbs 23:6-8 (NIV) says, Do not eat the food of a begrudging host, do not crave his delicacies; for he is the kind of person who is always thinking about the cost. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. You will vomit up the little you have eaten and will have wasted your compliments.

I have taught often on Proverbs 23:7, which says in some translations that as a person “thinks in his heart, so is he” (NKJV, KJV). This means that we become what we think about and indicates that our thoughts have much more power over our lives than we may realize. I like to say it this way: Where the mind goes, the man follows.

The NIV translation of verse 7 indicates that a person can appear to be one way, yet in his heart be entirely different. For example, someone may invite you to a feast while hoping you don’t eat much, because he is thinking about how much the meal will cost him. He is a begrudging host. He says, “Eat all you want! Drink all you want!” But in his heart, he does not really want you to take too much of his food or drink.

This teaches us that it is important for us to be genuine with our words. We should not speak in ways we think will impress the hearer when our words do not represent our true feelings. Our inner life (the hidden person of the heart) reveals who we really are.