The thoughts of our Heart
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Does God take into account our toughts.
Does God take into account our toughts.
13 Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
David prayed this psalm because he knew that God is concerned about our thoughts as he is concerned about our words or action.
Just like our action must be acceptable, and we do strive to be pleasing to God in all our works. Even so our thoughts must be acceptable before God.
Three sources to our thoughts
The thoughts that come from our hearts
The thoughts that come from God
The thoughts that come from the devil (enemy)
When we take the thought that the enemy places in our heart or mind, and make it our own and act on it then we will do the will of the devil.
When we take the thought that God places in our hearr and make it our own and act on it we do the will of God.
We will look later on how to distinguish between the thoughts that comes from the evil one and God. But first let us look at how seriously God looks at the thoughts of our hearts.
Old Testament Example
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
7 So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
When God was about to Judge the old world, he not only took into consideration their works but also their thoughts as well.
The Lord saw that the intents of their thoughts were continually evil, and hence their works is going to be continually evil.
Therefore they were not judged for only their evil works but for their thoughts as well which was continually evil.
Isaiah 59:1–7 (NKJV)
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue has muttered perversity.
4 No one calls for justice, Nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch vipers’ eggs and weave the spider’s web; He who eats of their eggs dies, And from that which is crushed a viper breaks out.
6 Their webs will not become garments, Nor will they cover themselves with their works; Their works are works of iniquity, And the act of violence is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; Wasting and destruction are in their paths.
The Lord speaks of the sins that separates God from man, and one is having thoughts of sins.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
The Lord here commands the unrighteous to forsake his thoughts. The thoughts of unrighteousness.
Acts 8:20–22 (NKJV)
20 But Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money!
21 You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God.
22 Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.
Not only was Simon told by Peter to seek frogiveness for his wickedness but also for having this evil thoughts (thoughts if sin) in his heart
Jesus Testimony
The Evil thoughts that come from our hearts can defile us ( meaning make us unclean or sinners before God)
Mark 7:18–23 (NKJV)
18 So He said to them, “Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him,
19 because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?”
20 And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.
21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.
23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”
The lord begins with”evil thoughts” proceeding from the heart of man. This is because all thing begin with a thought.
Evil thoughts that proceed out of your heart will defile you, make you unclean or sinner.
So God not only looks and our works, our speach but also looks at our thoughts and judges us accordingly.
Jesus refers to men, as in unregenerated men, from that heart comes all kind of evil thoughts.
How does the thoughts of our heart change from being evil to being good?
Our heart must changed. God must create in us a new heart according to his own likeness. A new man must be created to save us from this corrupt and wicked heart.
This was prophesied and forshadowed in the Old testament
After Isaiah has spoken about all the sins of man that has seprated him from God, including his evil thoughts, He said
15 So truth fails, And he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him That there was no justice.
16 He saw that there was no man, And wondered that there was no intercessor; Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him; And His own righteousness, it sustained Him.
The solution was a new man, through that new man, we can have a heart and mind that is pure, we can have thoughts that are acceptable to God.
The shadow of Noah
God stated that the thoughts of man will always be evil and hence destroying him from the face of the earth does not solve the problem
21 And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
However he did give a hint what will be the solution through the salvation of Noah.
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
Noah and his family were saved from the corruption of the world, Through the water and the ark.
Symbolic of the body in which we are partakes of through baptsim of water and of the Spirit in the New testament.
We are born again of the water and Spirit.
Galatians 3:27 (NKJV)
27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:13 (NKJV)
13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
19 Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh,
20 that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
This one heart, the heart of flesh is speaking about the heart of Christ.
We have one mind, one spirit, one heart which is Christ.
As we immerse ourselves in the word and Spirit of God after the New Birth. God will begin to gerninate and spring forth the new man within us.
We can look back and see how far we have come after being born again, the thoughts of our heart and the desires of heart as changed to a certain degree.
The Dificulty
The difficulty is not the change of Heart, is keeping and gourding what God has changed. The difficulty is not being made pure, is keeping what God has made pure from being defiled.
Mark 7:18–20 (NKJV)
18 So He said to them, “Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him,
19 because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?”
20 And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.
As important it is to have a clean heart, it is also important to keep that heart from being defiled from what comes from the outside.
Whatever we hear and see enters our heart. If we are careless in what we surround ourselves with. Allow our ears to hear and our eyes to see. Then when our heart is corrupted by those things it will begin to spew out evil thoughts.
Proverbs 16:17 (NKJV)
17 The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; He who keeps his way preserves his soul.
Proverbs 19:16 (NKJV)
16 He who keeps the commandment keeps his soul, But he who is careless of his ways will die.
By being carefull of your ways you will preserve what God has done within you.
By being careless of you way, you will kill what God has done within you.
Example of surrounding yourself with worldy things that corrupt the heart to think worly thoughts.
8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
Surround yourself, with noble, just, pure, lovely,virtues and praiseworthy things and your thoughts will be noble, just, pure, lovely and praiseworthy.
We take care with what we surround oursleves with, so that what God has puriefied within us does not become defiled and out of that corruption evil thoughts do not spring up. God forbid that we act on those thoughts.
Discering the Thoughts
Two type of thoughts that might come to our mind.
That thought can be from God from the devil.
Matthew 16:13–23 (NKJV)
13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
20 Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.
21 From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
22 Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”
23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
Peter did not discern the thoughts where they came from. He latched to both and made them his own and acted on it. In the one case he was honoured, in the other he was rebuked.
However Christ was able to discern them.
How does one discern the thoughts where they are coming from
Through the word of God.
Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV)
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
We are able through the Word of God to discern where the thought is coming . Not only the thought but also the intent.
Colossians 3:16 (NKJV)
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Hebrews 5:13–14 (NKJV)
13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
“the reason of use” , can be translated as “constant use”.
The Constant use of the word of God, will train your senses to discern both good and evil.
A baby is only acustomed to milk, will not have exercise his sense but as he grows and is exposed to all kinds of foods, he senses will be able to better discern what is good and evil.
We must be more accounted with scripture, the deep things of the word of God it will sharped our discernement so that we will be able to discern where each individual thought comes from.
2. By what That though produces in your heart
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.
14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.
15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.
16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
Some thoughts produce bitterness , eny, pride
some thoughts produce, peace , purity, mercy and humility.
6 So Isaac dwelt in Gerar.
7 And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “She is my sister”; for he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold.”
10 Then Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you have in view, that you have done this thing?”
11 And Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife.