Nothing in our lives is more important than our thoughts. Writer Ralph Waldo Emerson once explained, “Sow a thought and you reap an act, sow an act and you reap a habit, sow a habit and you reap a character.” Every person’s character is ultimately shaped by his thoughts. The Bible says the same thing in another way: “For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).
We have heard a great deal in recent days about the power of positive thinking. The Bible speaks of the power of all thinking. A person is what he thinks about all day long. Occasionally we learn of someone we have highly respected falling into a great sin. Such a fall does not occur overnight. People fall slowly, and moral deterioration may proceed without being observed..either by you its victim or by those who know you best.
On an autumn day tramping through the woods, you may have set your foot upon the trunk a fallen tree. The moment your weight came upon the bark it gave way and your foot crashed through to the rotten heart of the tree. That final collapse was instant, but the rotting and decomposition of the tree was far from sudden. There was the process of months and years of the rains of summer and the snows of winter.
We cannot guard our thoughts too carefully. A Christian should refrain from reading filthy literature, viewing obscene movies or lewd pictures, and telling or listening to off-colored jokes. All of these things lead to evil thinking. As Martin Luther observed, “We cannot keep birds from flying over our heads, but we can keep them from building nests in our hair.” We cannot keep evil thoughts from popping into our minds. We can, however, keep them from remaining there and growing.
The alternative to evil thinking is not to quit thinking altogether. The solution is to think good thoughts. The Bible says, “Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there by any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Philippians 4:8).
Every Christian would do well to begin each day by reading God’s word and in prayer. These set your thoughts on the right road for the rest of the day.