The Rule of Our Thoughts

I have explained that you might expect to be tempted to the end of your life, that the nearer you live to God, the more you will be tempted. The presence of temptation in your life is not a proof of deterioration, but the contrary, for the more you know of God on the one hand the more you will know of Satan’s temptation, on the other hand.

If you desire to be kept from yielding to temptation, you must be very careful of your thoughts, and it is about the necessity of guarding your thoughts that I am going to speak now.

Keep Thy Heart Clean

First, let us look at Proverbs 4:23, where the wise man says: “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life,” or as the revised version puts it: “Keep thy heart above all things that thou keepest.”

You keep your wealth, you keep your home, you keep your health, you keep your character, but above all these things keep your heart. Why? Because out of it are the issues of life.

When Bunyan depicted the character of Ignorance, he made him say:

“I think my heart is as good as anybody’s heart, and as for my thoughts, I take no notice of them.”