Don't Even Think About It

May 28, 2015 | By Chuck

"Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature."(Rom.13:14) How many times do we sin because we thought too much about it? We think about how fun it will be, instead of the end result of our sinful actions. We think about how much it will add to our life, instead of the pain that we will cause our self and others. We think about how good it will feel, instead of the guilt that we'll feel afterwards. The bottom line is so much of the time we sin because we think too much about it. In the above cited verse, Paul encourages his readers not to think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. It's when we think about it that it becomes an option and a possibility. The more we think about the potential sin the better we become at rationalizing doing it. The key is to guard our thoughts and not meditate on ways to gratify fleshly desires. Just because our thoughts belong to us doesn't mean it's okay or healthy to think about just anything. Instead of thinking of how to gratify the desires of the flesh, meditate on good things. "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things."(Phil.4:8)