Thoughts

Today's snow day has me snuggled up under my favorite blanket with John Owen's The Mortification of Sin. There is something striking about this concept. "Putting to death the misdeeds of the body," as Paul says in Romans 8:13, is always to be the work of the saved.

I've just read the following:
"It fills the thoughts with contrivances about it. Thoughts are the great purveyors of the soul to bring in the provision to satisfy its affections; and if sin remain unmortified in the heart, they must ever and anon be making provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. They must glaze, adorn, and dress the objects of the flesh, and bring them home to give satisfaction; and this they are able to do, in the service of a defiled imagination, beyond all expression." p.52

Well, my heart provides my body with a lot of thoughts. I would like to dismiss them as just thoughts but God's Words says otherwise.

2 Corinthians 10:5, "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."

Matthew 5:28, "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Sin is not only an on-display action but also in the heart and thoughts.

1 Chronicles 28:9, "acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts." and similarly Hebrews 4:12-13, "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."

Psalm 10:4, " In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God."

But oh what joy to read in Ephesians 2:3-5, "All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved" and in that, 1 Corinthians 2:10-12 says, "The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us."

My prayer for myself and for you is Psalm 19:14, "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer." That we would be putting to death the misdeeds of the body, to the point of making our thoughts obedient to Christ. That we would do that in the freedom of the cross on which the Prince of glory made the way to our God and Father.