Thoughts

Proverbs 4:23 “23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life.”

Proverbs 23:7 “7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; But his heart is not with thee.”

If you desire to be kept from yielding to temptation, you must be very careful of your thoughts, and it is about the necessity of guarding your thoughts.

KEEP THY HEART CLEAN

First, let us look at Proverbs 4:23, where the wise man says: "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." You keep your wealth, you keep your home, you keep your health, you keep your character, but above all these things keep your heart. Why? Because out of it are the issues of life.

When Bunyan depicted the character of Ignorance, he made him say: "I think my heart is as good as anybody's heart, and as for my thoughts, I take no notice of them." He shows at once that he does not know himself, and that he is exposed to every temptation that crosses his path. If you have never before noticed your thoughts you will find before I am done that the first suggestion of wrong comes through the doorway of the mind. Turn again to Proverbs 23:7, and read: "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."

"I must not do that act, but I may indulge the thought of doing it."

Let them also know that the thoughts they have entertained in their hearts will find an issue

THE WICKEDNESS OF MAN

The Word of GOD tells us, in Genesis 6:15: "God saw that the wickedness of man was very great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

Away back in the days of Noah the trouble GOD had with man was in his thoughts. The whole trend of the Bible is to get our thinking right.

As a contrast to that verse in Genesis,

I quote Philippians 4:8: "Whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, think on these things.”

Up to the doorway of your heart are always coming hundreds and thousands of thoughts, and you must be careful to reject the evil ones and let into your soul only those that are of good report. If these are the tenants of the inner life, you need have no fear about your character.

The act makes the habit, the habit or the bundle of habits form the character.

Our Lord announces the same truth in Mark 7:21: "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts." Then He names some of the sins adultery, fornication, murder, thefts, covetousness. They all begin in the evil thoughts. In Ephesians 2:13 we are told: "Among whom also we all had our conversation in time past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind."

one of the Puritans said: "You cannot help the birds flying over your head, but you can keep them from building their nests in your hair."

The evil thought may come to your door and knock, and you may keep your door locked. You sin when you open your heart and let the thought in and relish over it. Then desire becomes lust.

In James 1:14, 15 we read: "Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts, and enticed. For when the lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."

These thoughts come from Satan. "Lest Satan should get an advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices" (II Corinthians 2:11).

In dealing with our thoughts, two things are necessary: First, discernment; and second, keeping power.

DISCERNMENT

First, we want to be able to sift out bad thoughts from good thoughts; to know the traitor, however well he is dressed, and keep him out.

We need discernment.

Why?

Because "the god of this world hath blinded the minds," that is, the thoughts, "of them that believe not," that is, the unregenerate (II Corinthians 4:4). Man is blind. He sits at the gateway of his soul, hearing the tread of many feet, but unable to discern the bad from the good; blind, so that all thoughts are much the same, and he lets them all in, to his own undoing.

"He that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man" (I Corinthians 2:15). I suppose one mark of the spiritual man is his quickness in discerning. For my part, I used not to see sin until it was against my face, but now I can see it coming two or three fields away. You get keener and subtler to discern. It is a mistake to wait until your enemy is face to face. Pray to be quick to discern. In Hebrews 5 14 is a verse that has helped me much: "Even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

If you live in the midst of bad people, bad books and bad things, you lose your power of detecting bad thoughts when they come teeming about you like microbes. But if every day you spend an hour on GOD's mountains or upon the broad sea of the Bible, and get some of GOD's ozone into you, you will be able to detect things which are wrong, which other people, even Christians, pass without seeing as wrong.

KEEPING POWER

Suppose we see the importance of learning to discriminate between bad and good thoughts. But we find that sometimes for a whole day there will be knocking at the door of our heart, the gateway of our soul, bad thoughts which we know to be bad. They gather into a perfect crowd. We somehow do not seem to have the power to keep them out, and they force in, though we hate them and loathe them, and would do almost anything to be rid of them; and presently lead us to commit an act of sin. Many a good man understands that.

At this point let us turn to I Peter 4:19, where the apostle says: "Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God," because they are true to GOD's will, "commit the keeping of their soul to Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator."

"Commit." That is the Greek word used by CHRIST on the cross when He said: "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit."

Just as JESUS commended His spirit to His Father, so do you, when you leave your room in the morning, commit the keeping of the gateway of your soul to Him.

"As to a faithful Creator." Why call Him Creator here?

Why not Redeemer, or Saviour? Because He made you; and is not the GOD who made you able to keep you?

Is He who made you what you are, going to allow you unaided to drift before evil?

He is a faithful Creator! He created you, and He is faithful to keep you, and He knows how to do it.

Jude 24 “24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,”

2 Timothy 4:18 KJV 1900

18 And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

The man who made the lock can unlock it. Reckon on His faithfulness.

THE PEACE OF GOD

s. Colossians 3:15: "Let the peace of God rule," and the word means govern(arbitrate).

Leave it for the peace of GOD to say what you will or will not do. Group with that Philippians 4:7: "The peace of God shall keep." The word there is mount guard as a sentinel.

So that you have the peace of GOD ruling and sentinelling, keeping, governing. Think of the peace of GOD, armed like an angel of light, marching to and fro outside your heart, just keeping it!

look at emptying our hearts, take a glass of water. I can empty it either by pouring the water upon the floor, or by filling the glass with something that is heavier than water(mercury), and it will force the water out. The glass is just as empty of water when it is filled with mercury as if I simply poured the water out. It is impossible to empty your heart by turning out the sin, but you may empty it by filling it with JESUS. Ask then the Holy Spirit to prepossess and preoccupy you with the presence of JESUS, that the devil may have no foothold.