Volume 2 Lawrence, Kansas February 1962 Number 2
Thoughts are meditations, opinions, and reflections. They come from knowledge and produce understanding. Whether or not we believe what we hear depends on what we already know, and what we, in turn, think. Our thoughts in every day life mean the difference between life and death, an eternity in heaven or hell. God places much importance to the thoughts which we think.
When man was in the Garden of Eden, God implanted righteous thoughts in the mind of Adam and Eve. All went well until Satan came with his evil thoughts and corrupted their minds with his deceptive words. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and the pride of life overcame this innocent pair and they sinned. And so God cast them from the garden and pronounced the sentence of toil, sorrow, and physical death upon all mankind.
God has always punished man for his wayward thinking. Moses was denied entrance into the promised land because he "spake unadvisedly with his lips." [Psalms 106:33] His thoughts escaped the safety zone of his mouth, and brought sorrow and death to him. Miriam was punished with leprosy because she and Aaron spoke against Moses (Numbers 12). King Saul, the ruler of God's people, thought it all right to save the best of the sheep and oxen after the Lord had commanded the utter destruction of all that pertained to the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15) that he might sacrifice them to the Lord; but he was told that obedience was far better than sacrifice. The children of Israel became impatient when Moses tarried in the Mount, and produced the golden calf (Exodus 32). Their unguided thoughts had produced idolatry. King David's lustful thoughts led him to have a man killed in order to possess his wife, then paid dearly for it (2 Samuel 11).
God's experience with the wrong thinking of men has been recorded for our learning and admonition. Recognizing that God's thoughts are higher and safer than man's thoughts is a lesson man has been slow to learn. Jeremiah 10:23 states an all-important truth "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." God has made it plain that man's fallible thinking can never direct his steps heavenward. This fact is further substantiated in Isaiah 55:8, 9 where the Lord declared, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." This being true, how important that we follow the perfect thoughts of God, rather than our undependable thinking.
In Ecclesiastes 10:20 we are admonished not, to curse the king, "no not in thy thought." Matthew 12:34-37 Bears out the power of thought: "O generation of vipers, how can ye being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things and evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words shalt thou be justified, and by thy words shalt thou be condemned." If we sow a thought, we reap an action; if we sow an action we reap a habit; if we sow a habit we reap a character; and if we sow a thought, we reap an action; it all starts with our thoughts.
Peter's advice to Simon, the Sorcerer, was that he should pray to God, "if perhaps the thoughts of thine heart should be forgiven thee"-Acts 8:18-22. In Proverbs 23:7 it is taught that "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." The thoughts fashion the character: if the thoughts are pure the character will be pure; but if the thoughts are impure, an impure character results. This is emphasized in Philippians 4:8 where we are commanded to think on the things which are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. In so doing our lives will respond accordingly. If we are to grow in the grace and knowledge of God (2 Peter 3:18) God's grace and knowledge must, of necessity, fill our minds and hearts. David earnestly prayed that "the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer"-Psalm 19:14. David realized the damage which wrong words could do, and so he went to the source of all words and actions, the heart, and sought to control it in divine moderation.
Since God has placed so much emphasis on the thoughts and intents of the heart, let us think of the heart as the Home of our thoughts, the mouth as the channel through which our thoughts reach our fellowmen. It has been truly said that "Wars begin in the hearts of men," and it is just as true that peace, goodness and love have their origins there also. Thus, man's eternal destiny lies in the direction of his thinking.