Our Thought Lives
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord.”
- Psalm 19:14
I’ve been reading through the book “Intimate Friendship with God” again by Joy Dawson. I first read this book when I was in YWAM 13 years ago (Wow! I can’t believe its been that long already) and it is still one of my favorites to thumb through and review again and again. Yesterday, I turned to the chapter on thoughts. I think this is something that Christians struggle with so much. It is one thing to “clean up our act” on the outside, but to truly turn from your sin in your thought life is the most challenging part: we may forgive someone when they ask us to but still hold onto bitterness in our heart… we may say that we trust the Lord when times are hard but secretly worry and fear… we can hold our tongue from gossiping about our neighbor but inward think critical and judgmental thoughts about them. But while we may fool others for a time, we will never fool God. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”. He knows the true me. He knows the true you. And it is Him that we should strive to please. It is Him that knows how holy our thoughts are, or lack thereof.
Joy Dawson says, “All sin starts in the mind; therefore, we are only as holy as our ‘thought lives’ are holy. I believe our thoughts sound as loudly in heaven as our words do on earth. Would we want our thoughts to be written on a wall at the end of the day for anyone to see?
It is not sufficient to repent of sin committed with our words and actions alone. Repentance of our sinful thoughts are equally important. ‘Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have mercy on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon’ (Isaiah 55:7). If we have not an immediate reaction of hatred to some critical, evil, unforgiving, lustful, or unbelieving thought, then we know there is still a love for that sin in our hearts. We need to ask for the fear of the Lord to come upon us to replace the love for that sin. We are only as pure as our thought lives are pure. ”
So convicting. Actually the whole book is so convicting. But in order to have the intimate friendship with God, we need to get the things out of the way that hinder it. Instead of dealing with the symptoms… we must first deal with the root… our thoughts. It is never about our “performance” but it is about what is truly in our heart.
Just thought I’d pass on the notes that I had jotted down in case anyone else needed to hear this like I did. Blessings.
Melissa