What Are You Thinking?

Hello again everybody, I should be pretty annoying by now but why not continue the series on holiness? Let’s talk about your mind. How many of you can honestly consider yourself a “good person”? Did you answer yes? Can you think of at least three people that you are a “better person than,” don’t be modest, there must be people you know who are “bad” people. What is the definition of a good person? Let us define a good person by someone who is nice to everyone they encounter, slow to anger, slow to judge, and in general does the right thing. If you found a wallet, would you return it or keep the money inside and say: “I found it that way?”

Did you know that even if you consider yourself everything that has been described above, that is still not enough for God? What!? You mean to tell me that no matter what I do it still may not be enough? That is exactly what I’m saying. So the issue arises, what is it going to take? Well ask yourself this question…what are you thinking? Have you been thinking about stealing your best friends boyfriend? You may not have done it but you thought about it.

Yes, I’m saying what it sounds like I’m saying; not only should you keep your actions in check but your thoughts as well. Where is the biblical evidence? I’m glad you asked; Romans 2:15 illustrates the point: “Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness and their hearts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.” If it’s difficult to understand the thee’s and thou’s, this scripture basically means that your heart (what kind of person you are on the inside) and your mind (your thoughts) will also be judged along with your actions. To be put even more plainly, if you envisioned yourself fornicating with him/her guess what…you’ve already done it, its already been marked as a sin. The bible also goes along to say in verse 15: “In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” The “my gospel” refers to Paul the Apostle of Christ; he was one of God’s servants. So once again, God will judge not only the actions that everyone else sees but also the ones only YOU know about (your secrets) so confess them now!

Well, how do we help our thought processes? Let us discuss what is necessary for this to happen:

1) First and foremost you need to be filled with the Holy Ghost (born again) and be baptized in Jesus name. Some of us don’t have this, and if you don’t pray for it, God will make a way.

2) Stay busy—Have you ever heard the saying “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” Did you know that the more time you have on your hands, the more likely you are to do something wrong? Get involved in something.

3) Stop the thought when it occurs—the devil will provide the initial thought, we are the ones who entertain it until it manifests itself into us actually doing the thing, the thing is, we have done whatever it is in our mind first, the thought paves the road for the action so use a road block and rebuke it.

What you should not do is continue to think about it; otherwise it is bound to happen. Needless to say—I’ll provide an example:

Julie is a senior in high school, and there is a new boy at the school named Jonathan whom Julie thinks is really cute. She tells her friends “If I could have him all to myself, I don’t know what I’d do”. As the week wears on she continually thinks about setting up a situation where she and Jonathan can be alone. By Friday her “little thought” had evolved into an inappropriate fantasy, however she continued to think about it. Well the big party came on Saturday night, and both Julie and Jonathan had a bit too much to drink and they both found themselves in the bathroom together. Julie had been thinking about this moment all week so it just came natural to her to do what she fantasized about.

Yes, it was corny, but the message is clear—don’t let your thoughts get control of you, keep your thoughts at bay or you are sure to sin every time. Remember this—God always has a way to escape temptation of any kind; usually we are too blind to notice it.