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I don't know about you but I struggle daily with my thoughts!!! My thoughts are frequently abhorrent, evil, self centered, repulsive, disgusting and hateful! Have you ever thought about the fact that every sin we commit, we commit twice, once in our thoughts and again when we act upon those thoughts.
Proverbs 4:23 NIV Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
The “heart” includes the mind and all that proceeds from it. It is easier to rid our lives of sin if we attack it from the beginning rather than waiting for it to become rooted in our lives by our actions. There is also a difference between being tempted (a thought entering into the mind) and sinning (dwelling upon an evil thought and wallowing in it). It is important to understand that when a thought enters our mind, we must examine it based upon God’s Word and determine if we should continue down that path or reject the thought and replace it with another thought. If we have already allowed a bad habit to form in our thought lives, it becomes more difficult to change the path of our thoughts. Changing the path of your thoughts is like driving down a muddy country road. Once your wheels get into the deep ruts in the middle of the road it is nearly impossible to get out. You either do your best to back out or you get high centered, get stuck, then need someone to come tow you out. You are like the air traffic controller of your mind. You must decide which thoughts will land and which will not. Here is an acrostic that you should use before speaking or acting upon your thoughts. T H I N K. T stands for “Truthful” is your thought the truth? H is “Helpful” will your thought be helpful to others? I is “Inspiring” will your thought inspire others to be better? N is “Necessary” is your thought really necessary or do you just want to share your 2 cents worth? K is “Kind” is your thought kind, if not than keep it to yourself!
2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
So how do we take captive our thoughts, how do we control our thoughts. Begin by being in Gods word so that when a sinful thought or temptation enters your mind you will immediately recognize it and know how to respond to it. When Jesus was in the wilderness and was tempted by Satan. He responded to each temptation with scripture that applied. He knew the direction His thoughts should take. Instead of going down the path of sinful thoughts. When He was tempted to meet His physical hungry, Satan told Jesus to turn stone into bread, He recited the scripture about the importance of relying upon God.
Next don't feed your mind with things that will promote sinful thoughts! For example avoid, videos, websites, conversations, and situations that will set you up for a failure. Avoid spending time with those who would encourage you down these wrong paths.Finally for me one of the greatest tools I have found to help me control my thoughts is to surround myself with fellow Christians by attending bible study, Sunday School, worship service and every other function that I can possible attend. Don't try to go it alone, there are strength in numbers. The members of my church are like my second family and like my brothers and sisters they ask me in love how I am doing and hold me accountable for avoiding my old ways and my thoughts. My importantly they pray for me!
Last and most important, these methods will be of no value unless you have placed your faith in Christ as your Savior from sin. This is where we absolutely must start! Without this, there can be no victory over sinfu
