Dear God,
It is sobering when I really stop and contemplate, You see and judge all. This means all the dark, mean and sinful thoughts that I allow to ‘stick’ so to speak; and not the flitting ones, that I do not dwell on so that they become mine; no matter their original source.
You would not ask this of us, unless You had also provided a way, to discipline the mind and to be sober in habit. As I read, I find Jesus taught that we can watch our thoughts and words by accepting Him into our lives each morning, and continuing in an attitude of prayer throughout the day. I have the hope and assurance that gradually as practiced, this way becomes more part of my experience. I have found to my sorrow that wrong thoughts lead to unfortunate attitudes, words and deeds. This has been common to man, since sin came into the world. Psalm 19: 12 “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.” V14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight. O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”
God, You knew, we could of ourselves not remain pure or live without doing wrong, so sent the Holy Spirit, as promised, to work in our minds and heart. This can only be so, when we cooperate, and as the Psalmist prayed dwell upon and read/watch what is clean, so that our thoughts and desires will be bound and not go off wildly into self-centeredness or evil.
We know by His life and words, that Jesus when on earth could see through pretense and the evil thoughts despite the outward display of right living, when He rebuked the priests and called them a “‘brood of vipers’….. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasures brings forth evil things. But, I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgement.” Matthew 12: 34, 35, 36
A piece of wood is destroyed gradually as the white ants eat hidden away, until finally the inside rottenness cannot support the outside wood, and the inside is revealed. So we are told, we are changed and undermined, as the a little wrong thought and evil is allowed, then increase and finally become ‘us’.
As written in Philippians 4:8, I choose by the power of God, to meditate on the true, noble, just, pure, of good report, virtuous and praiseworthy things.
Amen