our thought-life

This morning I was thinking about a co-laborer in Christ. In my thoughts I was correcting this person for an error in a judgmental attitude, when the Lord broke in with “Helen, you know if you saw ______ you wouldn’t say these things.” He was right. I had seen her just last week and said nothing. The Lord brought another co-laborer to mind whom I had also felt was practicing in the same error, and yet I knew that I would not say anything to her as well. Though I have been raised to speak what is on my mind, I also value my relationships and see the good in these two people. Valuing them, and seeing their worth is what kept me from speaking what was on my mind and this became the basis of today’s lesson.

What is in our mind is not necessarily what is in our heart. In thinking about the 2 co-laborers I find that I didn’t have the “heart” to speak to them about what I considered offensive behavior. It hasn’t been a matter of right or wrong, but a matter of heart. This is what the Lord was pointing out when He said I wouldn’t actually say those things to the people whose behavior I found offensive. He then cautioned me to stop “practicing” those thoughts else they would enter my heart. Once my heart agreed to these thoughts it would be only a matter of time before I would find a way to speak them out. Though we are given a new heart when we follow Jesus, our mind needs to be “transformed” or it will pollute our heart from its input (Rm 12:2).

It is written that, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Prov 23:7 KJV). Our heart has a voice, generating thoughts to our mind. Jesus tells us that, “anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” (Matt 5:22). If we value our brothers and sisters in our hearts we will not label them as fools or worthless. This valuing of people protects our heart from receiving unkind thoughts towards them.

I have heard Christians say that, they might as well go ahead and commit the sin they are thinking in their minds because they are already judged by God as guilty. If this were so why would Paul ask us to capture our thoughts so that we could be obedient to Christ in our thinking? (2 Cor 10:5) Paul saw that there is a process whereby our thoughts can be stopped before they pollute our hearts. Because the thoughts in our mind can be from our enemy, satan, we often find ourselves at war with him in the battlefield of our minds.

In Genesis we read an account of God speaking to Cain about his thoughts. God noticed that Cain’s face was downcast when his sacrifice was rejected. Cain was also very angry (see Gen 4:5-7). His wrong thoughts were not just fleeting thoughts; they had entered into his heart where they could motivate Cain to action. God warned Cain that “if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” God was giving Cain the same chance to change his mind, and to repent of what was in his heart, that He gives to us today. Had Cain “captured” his thoughts and made them be obedient to God, he wouldn’t have murdered his brother Abel.

We must guard what enters into our hearts, for it is from the heart that the issues of life come (Pr 4:23). It is from the heart that the mouth speaks proud, boastful and unkind thoughts (Mt 12:34). We are told that it is the spirit of a man that searches the thoughts out (1 Cor 2:10-12). When our spirit listens to God’s Spirit within us, we have the added bonus of His perspective. If we are soft to His touch, He will mold us by His Spirit through forsaking wrong thoughts so that we do no wrong actions. But if we are firm in the convictions of our wrong thoughts, we will eventually do them. For this reason God works with us continually to bring to the light the errors of our thinking and washes us daily by His Word so that we might become the righteousness of Christ. He reminds us of the value He puts in others so that we can share in His thoughts of good towards them. Today, let us affirm the goodness in others that will protect our hearts from devaluing them. Perhaps, if they are in error, the Lord will give us a kind word by which to encourage them. Amen.