For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…. Proverbs 23:7
I have a tough assignment for you: try to do something, anything, without thinking about it first. The harder you try, the more impossible it becomes. Even if it is a split second decision, you still think about it for that split second before you do it. Here is an even tougher assignment: try to sit there without thinking at all. Try to turn your mind completely off – think about absolutely nothing. Another impossibility, right? Even if you could stop thinking about every “outside” thing, you would still be sitting there thinking about trying not to think about anything. And, chances are, you are still talking to yourself as you sit there trying to think about not thinking about anything. It gets confusing, but the point is, your mind is constantly at work. Your thoughts are continuously working because that is the way God designed our brains to function.
Every single action originates in the mind. All the good things we decide to do first start as a thought to do something good. All the sins that we commit first start as a thought to do that evil thing. Once an individual makes a decision in his mind, there is rarely a change in his actions. When asked why they did a certain thing, many people’s first response is, “Well, I just didn’t think about it first. I just did it.” They are right to a certain extent, but very wrong to another. They may not have thought that action completely through to its conclusion and consequences, but they most certainly thought about doing it first. It may have been a fleeting thought, but it is impossible to carry out an action without first thinking about what is about to be done. Every action is born from a thought.
The tough part, then, becomes figuring out a way to control the mind in order to bring the actions under control. The solution, although difficult in execution, is actually very simple in concept. Philippians 2:5 says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” If we could obtain the mind of Christ, then our actions would be controlled by the mind of Christ. That means that every time we sin, we do not have the mind of Christ, because the mind of Christ certainly does not dwell upon sinful things. Let it be our goal, then, to let our minds be controlled by the mind of Christ, and to linger only upon those thoughts that Jesus Christ Himself would dwell upon.
Read also: Proverbs 23:1-9
Quote of the day: “You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.”- James Allen
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