Stinkin' Thinkin'

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he....

Proverbs 23:7a

If you and I were to list every single sin we can think of, I wonder how long that list would be. The problem with sin is that it doesn't just happen. For either a short amount of time or an extended period of time, a sin in some form has occurred first in ones thoughts. Those thoughts are developed through things we experience over time.

 

Thoughts begin developing from the moment there is recognition of life on the part of a very young child. What happens from that time on stems from experiences in the home. When a child is school age, there begins a process of a child having to process events of life as they occur in different arenas other than in the home. At this time, there is more separation from parents and there begins to be input from other human beings. Some of this input comes from Sunday school teachers and other adults in the church setting. School begins too soon for many young children. It is in the school setting that a child's thinking can become confused. There can begin to be confusion between what has been learned at home and then teaching from teachers. It's not unusual for some teachers to even suggest to their students that they are to pay more attention them than their parents. Older children begin educating younger children regarding facts of life and often working on a child's moral thinking. I won't even go into the area of bullying that children may experience that can do real emotional damage.

The process continues and the world continues to bombard us with how we should think and behave and all of us have absorbed more of the world's philosophies than we should. However, now, unlike that young child going into the world for the first time, we have had choices through the years as to how we're going to think and about what. I'm afraid we have sometimes almost harbored old hurts and former negative experiences with no attempt to allow God to help us clean it all out, get rid of it and enjoy the fresh air of forgiveness and clean thinking.

Brian and I just finished doing some redecorating in my Sunday school classroom. We knew we had to do a paint job on two walls but we had no idea what else would need done. We stripped off an old border. It was a thick, very old mess. We then noticed wallpaper on the lower part of the wall that would require removal. How could I have ever thought that the job would be to just paint and put on a new border. We came across the metal vent in a lower wall that let in cool air in the summer and warm in the winter. Brian being Brian pulled it out of the wall only to find crud galore that was already smelly. He scraped, caulked where needed, cleaned and painted the vent which made all the difference in the world.

We could have painted and bordered the room til the cows came home but that vent, left to itself would have created some serious odor and even allergy problems. We couldn't see all of it until it was pulled out of the wall, checked, cleaned and scraped.

A lot of times, we feel we do some pretty good personal housecleaning. We may go to great lengths to doll ourselves up, put on a good front, but without cleaning out the crud of the world's influence, those hidden thoughts that don't honor the Lord, we will continue to poison and hinder us spiritually with stinkin' thinkin'.

The Psalmist's prayer in the verse below is for three things. I wonder how many of us would be able to pray these three things without hesitation before God. He first asks God to search him (that's checking the overall spirit and attitude of the person). Searching isn't a casual “look/see” but a close scrutiny. He also asks for God to know his thoughts not that God doesn't already know everything about us. It's the thoughts that have come as a result of the attitude, experience and spirit of the person. This indicates to me that God knows our thoughts better than we do and we need His Holy Spirit to reveal openly to us where we need to repent and confess the sin of wrong thinking. He asks God to try and test him. I don't think many of us would even be ready for that part even though as a spiritual exercise, it is good for us.

Are we courageous enough to pray this prayer with the Psalmist that we might stand before God with clean thinking and purity of spirit.

Search me, O God, and know my

heart: try me, and know my thoughts.

Psalm 139:23

AMEN and AMEN!!