What does the Bible say about wishful thinking?<\/p>\n\t
Wishful thinking is the act of forming beliefs based on what is pleasing to the person instead of on evidence or reality. I might wish to believe there is no school tomorrow, but that doesn’t change the facts. The problem with wishful thinking is that the person and his feelings become the basis of judgment.<\/p>\n
For example, when Isaiah called on Israel to change, they refused. “For this is a rebellious people, false sons, sons who refuse to listen to the instruction of the LORD; who say to the seers, ‘You must not see visions;’ and to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right, speak to us pleasant words, prophesy illusions. Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel’<\/em>” (Isaiah 30:9-11). Truth didn’t matter. They only wanted to hear things that made them feel good. When Jeremiah was telling everyone that God had determined to wipe out Jerusalem, most people didn’t want to hear his message. They preferred false teachers who told them everything was fine. “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority; and My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?<\/em>” (Jeremiah 5:31).<\/p>\n Such a problem continues to this day. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths<\/em>” (II Timothy 4:3-4).<\/p>\n What I wish is irrelevant. I must school myself to seek the truth, even when it may be painful.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: What does the Bible say about wishful thinking? Answer: Wishful thinking is the act of forming beliefs based on what is pleasing to the person instead of on evidence or reality. I might wish to believe there is no school tomorrow, but that doesn’t change the facts. The problem with wishful thinking is that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[49,1714],"class_list":["post-70411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-faith","tag-wishful-thinking"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":67961,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-red-heifer\/","url_meta":{"origin":70411,"position":0},"title":"The Red Heifer","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 7, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The Muslims have occupied the place of the Jewish temple with the Dome of the Rock for centuries. There are Jews who want very badly to remove the Muslims and the Dome of the Rock so that the Jews can rebuild a temple in that place.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27604,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-sheshan-have-no-sons-when-a-son-named-ahlai-is-mentioned\/","url_meta":{"origin":70411,"position":1},"title":"How can Sheshan have no sons, when a son named Ahlai is mentioned?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In I Chronicles 2, it says that Sheshan had no sons, only daughters, so he gave his daughter to his servant, who gave him Attai.\u00a0 So because Sheshan gave his daughter to his servant, does that mean that Attai carries on Sheshan's name in the family?\u00a0 Is that why\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20152,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-have-you-seen-that-the-law-was-done-away-with\/","url_meta":{"origin":70411,"position":2},"title":"Where have you seen that the Law was done away with?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: So because he follows the law statutes and commandments of the Old Testament, you assume that the Hebrew Israelites are not correct? You need to do some more reading, where, in the Scriptures, have you seen that the law, statutes, and commandments were done away with? If you read\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94153,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/eternal-life-imagine\/","url_meta":{"origin":70411,"position":3},"title":"Eternal Life: Imagine","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 22, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Jesus brought immortality to light and made it real by demonstrating His resurrection from the dead. Now we know that eternal life is real. The prophetic word spoke of it, and then Jesus confirmed it; the eyewitnesses verified it. It is not a matter of blind\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50532,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-dont-go-there\/","url_meta":{"origin":70411,"position":4},"title":"I Don\u2019t Go There","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant People use many devices to mitigate or cancel out plain Bible teaching. This ancient practice can be traced to the Old Testament. Seven hundred years before Christ, Isaiah was dealing with a rebellious people. God told him: \"Now go, write it on a tablet before them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/hear-no-evil-300x168.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":28593,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-there-be-a-beginning-if-god-always-existed\/","url_meta":{"origin":70411,"position":5},"title":"How can there be a beginning if God always existed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If someone asked \"where did God come from or how did he get to be\" then the person asked (if a Christian) would probably say \"He has always been there He still is and will always be.\" Right, so if He has always been there and is eternal then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}