Battle of the Mind / Protecting the Heart (4 of 5)
Series: A Layman's Guide to Spiritual Maturity
Eddie Snipes
Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Your mind is the guard of your heart. Jesus made it clear that all sin comes from the heart and not the mind. This may be counter to what most people believe, but many struggle with guilt unnecessarily because they do not understand the role between our minds, our hearts and our thoughts. You cannot control thoughts from entering your mind, but you can control whether or not you entertain thoughts and then welcome them into your heart. We do not fall under condemnation until sin is conceived in our hearts. Consider these words of Jesus from Matthew 15:18-20
18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
You are not defiled because of what goes in, but what comes out. Food, drink or anything going in cannot corrupt a man. This is also true about thoughts in the mind. What thoughts arise in the mind does not necessarily corrupt until we allow it a place, receive it into our hearts and allow it to become part of the corruption that comes from our heart into our lives. We are taught in scripture that we sin when we are drawn by our own sinful desires and enticed. It is the desire from our heart that draws us into sin and our actions are conceived first in our hearts before acted out in our lives. Even if we are restrained from acting out, the sin in our heart still condemns us and defiles our lives. What we put in our minds and entertain in our thoughts will make it into our lives. This is why the Bible warns us not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by renewing our minds each day ...
Series: A Layman's Guide to Spiritual Maturity
Eddie Snipes
Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Your mind is the guard of your heart. Jesus made it clear that all sin comes from the heart and not the mind. This may be counter to what most people believe, but many struggle with guilt unnecessarily because they do not understand the role between our minds, our hearts and our thoughts. You cannot control thoughts from entering your mind, but you can control whether or not you entertain thoughts and then welcome them into your heart. We do not fall under condemnation until sin is conceived in our hearts. Consider these words of Jesus from Matthew 15:18-20
18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
You are not defiled because of what goes in, but what comes out. Food, drink or anything going in cannot corrupt a man. This is also true about thoughts in the mind. What thoughts arise in the mind does not necessarily corrupt until we allow it a place, receive it into our hearts and allow it to become part of the corruption that comes from our heart into our lives. We are taught in scripture that we sin when we are drawn by our own sinful desires and enticed. It is the desire from our heart that draws us into sin and our actions are conceived first in our hearts before acted out in our lives. Even if we are restrained from acting out, the sin in our heart still condemns us and defiles our lives. What we put in our minds and entertain in our thoughts will make it into our lives. This is why the Bible warns us not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by renewing our minds each day ...
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