Our Thoughts Reveal What We Are Becoming

By A. W. Tozer
 

. . .If there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,
think on these things.                -  -  Philippians 4:8

The Bible has a great deal to say about our thoughts;
current evangelicalism has practically nothing to say
about them. The reason the Bible says so much is that
our thoughts are so vitally important to us. The reason
evangelicalism says so little is that we are overreacting
from the "thought" cults, which would make our
thoughts to be very nearly everything and we counter
by making them nothing. Both positions are wrong.

Our voluntary thoughts not only reveal what we
are, they predict what we will become. The will can
become the servant of the thoughts, and to a large
degree even our emotions follow our thinking. Thinking
stirs feeling and feeling triggers action. That is the
way we are made, and we may as well accept it.

Thinking about God and holy things creates a moral
climate favorable to the growth of faith and love and
humility and reverence. We cannot by our thinking
regenerate our hearts, nor take our sins away, nor
change the leopard's spots. But we can by Spirit-inspired
thinking help to make our minds pure sanctuaries in
which God will be pleased to dwell.

The best way to control our thoughts is to offer the
mind to God in complete surrender. The Holy Spirit will
accept it and take control of it immediately. Then it will
be relatively easy to think on spiritual things, especially
if we train our thought by long periods of daily prayer,
even talking to God inwardly as we work or travel.
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Yours in Christ,
Paul N. F