Not Allowing Crowds to Crowd my Thinking

‘As Jesus and His disciples left the city of Jericho, a huge crowd followed behind.
Two blind men were sitting beside the road. When they heard that Jesus was coming that way, they began shouting, ‘Lord Son of David, have mercy on us!’
The crowd told them to be quiet, but they only shouted louder, ‘Lord, Son of David have mercy on us!’
Jesus stopped
in the road and called, ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’
‘Lord,’ they said, ‘we want to see!’
Jesus felt sorry for them and touched their eyes.
Instantly
they could see!
Then they followed Him.
Matthew 20 vs 30-34

Reading these four verses in the Scriptures that sum up an entire story really got me thinking about crowds...

The crowd told these men to keep quiet. Imagine if they had listened and kept quiet? They wouldn’t have attracted Jesus' attention and wouldn’t have gained their sight. It would have made no difference to the crowd either way – but the difference it made to them was life changing!

A few chapters later in the Bible – a crowd worshiped Jesus as He rode on a donkey into Jerusalem – singing His praises.

A few days later a crowd cried out for Him to be crucified!

I’ve always wondered whether it was the same crowd… Or if it wasn’t exactly the same crowd, I can’t help wondering whether there were some people that were the same people in both crowds who had simply been swayed by crowd mentality?

Looking up this phenomenon in Wikipedia, I read
Crowd behavior is heavily influenced by the loss of responsibility of the individual and the impression of universality of behavior, both of which increase with the size of the crowd.

Makes me think that the crowd mentality reasons that it’s safe in numbers and that each individual does not have to take responsibility for their own individual actions.

After watching a nature program this week I was horrified to see an army of ants devouring and bringing destruction, destroying everything in their path leaving a trail of death. They are tiny creatures but being part of a colony -come crowd, can cause devastating damage!

Bringing myself back to my life, I have to ask myself the question, how often have I given into peer pressure to cross over a line I had drawn in the sand.

People pleasing when I should have been more concerned about pleasing my Loving Heavenly Father.
How victorious I felt when I stood above the crowd and obeyed Him because I knew it would make His Heart happy.

However, crowds don’t always accumulate around me though.

There are times my thoughts get crowded and I have to make a concerted effort to remember to shout them down or take them captive and bring them under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Whichever is required and remember His open invitation in Jeremiah 33 vs 3.
'Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.'

The God of the universe wants us to call out to Him.

Much like the blind men mentioned, I don’t want to miss out on a touch from Jesus, so I silence the voices with Scripture

so I can clearly hear His Voice above the crowd

so I can see.

—
Brenda.ps23©