Thoughts of the Heart
Once when I was struggling to break through in prayer, a man of God told me that my thinking was wrong. For a long time I wondered what this meant, but recently God has been dealing with me about my thought life.
The Bible talks about the importance of our thought life. Jesus taught in Matthew that if a man was to look at a woman in order to think a lustful thought, he had committed adultery with her in his heart. Is a mere thought a big deal? Yes. It is of the utmost importance to be pure in our hearts and thoughts. In Matthew 15 Jesus taught that the words we speak proceed out of the heart; and those words can defile us. Then He added evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, all sexual sins, robberies, false witnesses, and blasphemies to the list. All of these proceed out of our heart. This is confirmed by Proverbs 23:7, which teaches that “as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Our thought life is crucial to our purity.
If we are to take the proverb literally, then our identity is defined by our thought life. The enemy has an opportunity to take us out if he can influence the way we think. One of his greatest weapons is his voice. The Bible calls the devil the “father of lies” and “accuser of our brethren.” Because we have the Holy Ghost we have authority over the devil, yet he still finds ways to influence our thinking. For instance, in the Garden of Eden, God reigned supreme. He was the Creator of this beautiful new world, and He had given his greatest creation, man, dominion over the Garden (including serpents). Because the serpent had no authority, he had one tactic to use: his voice. He lied to Eve, and she believed him. Because Eve believed the lie and let it influence her thinking, the entire human race fell into sin. Whenever you believe the lies of the devil you give him access and authority to steal from you. What did Eve do next? She disobeyed God, or sinned, by eating the fruit. All this is because she allowed the serpent — who she had been given dominion over — to influence her thinking. It is out of the heart that sin proceeds.
Now, this is not as scary as it sounds. The devil can’t just drop thoughts into our minds and instantly defeat us. We must fellowship with it, and then accept it. Have you ever been praying and had some ridiculous thought distract you? Well, usually you can’t stop a bug from getting in your house, but it’s up to you to kill it once it gets in. This is how we must treat the devil and his clever mind games. He will use all sorts of tactics, like twisting people’s words, actions and even motives to cause us to mistrust one another. Thoughts of doubt, fear, and worry will try to steal us of our shield of faith. If our thoughts do not agree with the word of God then we must squash them like a pesky mosquito. If we allow them to gain a foothold in our minds, then we may begin to believe them and that would grant the enemy authority which he otherwise does not have.
Whether it’s the roars of a lion or the hisses of a snake, the enemy will try to influence our thinking. But we have authority over him: we have the authority to tell him and his lies to get lost. I expect him to try to influence me, and I won’t feel condemned when he tries, but I will exercise my dominion power and take on the mind of Christ.
Pardon the pun, but that was a great thought!
As you said, “our identity is defined by our thought life”, making it a very big deal. You expressed it well.
Protecting our mind is an ongoing and paramount job we have and we must strive to master…it is the gateway for our advisary to enter in. It is our mind that allows the spirit to rule over us.
Proverbs 25:28 (King James Version)
He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.
Love the term “thought life”.