No Christian is automatically given a mature, godly and productive thought life at their conversion. It’s a part of wisdom and maturity which must be gained by prayer and prayerful labor. So whenever wicked (impure, lazy, selfish, etc.) thoughts pop up, the first step is always repentance. Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount revealing anger to be murder of the heart and lust to be adultery of the heart should lead us to sprint toward repentance every time the ugliness of sin sprouts in our inner self. 

[See the first and second post in this short series.]

What goes on between our ears matters to God, probably a lot more than we realize. Equally important is the Bible’s clear teaching that we are responsible for our “thought life” and called to a holy thought life, glorifying to God. Easy to say, hard to do!

How do I deal with wicked thoughts? How do I become more thoughtful?

The basic Scriptural pattern  of “repent and replace” applies here as well as it does in other areas of life. (See Eph. 4:22-24, 28-29 for how Paul applies this principle to thieves and those with poor speech.) No Christian is automatically given a mature, godly and productive thought life at their conversion. It’s a part of wisdom and maturity which must be gained by prayer and prayerful labor.

So whenever wicked (impure, lazy, selfish, etc.) thoughts pop up, the first step is always repentance.

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