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About Evil Thoughts

Not every evil thought is a sin. There's a difference between, "an evil thought crossing your mind" VS. "accepting the evil thought, lingering on an evil thought, fueling an evil thought, agreeing with the evil thought, and then wanting to take that thought and put it into action." (notice all the steps in the latter, in the realm of thought, before you get to the action). So instead of, "there goes an evil thought; not doing that", you go, "hey evil thought, come back here, let me take a closer look at you, study you for a bit, actually you look pretty nice, what's so bad about you? let's do that". There's an entirely different attitude between the two scenarios.

The moment you get a thought and you realize that it is evil, change the thought/daydream on purpose: submit it to Christ, to the Word of God, to something that adheres to one of God's commands. Change the scene.

• 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)
  
  5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

This will take practice. The more scripture you know, the more efficient and successful you will be.


About Abandonment / Punishment

• 2 Chronicles 15:2 (NIV)
  
  2 He went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah
  and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him,
  he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you
  
  
• Deuteronomy 4:29 (NIV)
  
  29 But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek
  him with all your heart and with all your soul.
  
  
• Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV)
  
  13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
  

God doesn't abandon you unless you totally abandon him first. Keep seeking him with all you have. Get to know his Will, his commands, by studying scripture.

As long as the attitude in you is one of "I hate sin / I hate doing what God hates / I hate approving of what God dis-approves of", then you don't have to fear God's abandonment. Especially if you're in covenant with him and haven't realized that you've sinned yet (and don't know enough to distinguish what is sin and what is not: by the way, "sin" is the transgression of the law according to 1 John 3:4). It takes a while before God abandons somebody (just look at Israel: it took many generations of telling them to repent of their wicked ways [or else he'll exile them out of the land], before he brought armies to invade and the land spat them out).

God is long-suffering / patient, especially the less you know. For instance: the angels who rebelled against him have no chance to repent at all, they're shut up in Tartarus awaiting judgment day i.e. 2 Peter 2:4 [Satan is an exception, being used as a tool in God's hand until then]). Humans who rebelled, on the other hand, have Jesus as their atonement sacrifice and a way back into a reconciled relationship with God—unlike the rebellious angels. The angels knew more; they know God and his ways more intimately than we do, on a level we don't. Thus, his dealings with their disobedience was more severe. Akin to:

• Luke 12:47-48 (NIV)
  
  47 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

We're not totally innocent; mankind transgressed out of their own free will, so we endure some blows, but we're met with mercy for not knowing as much as the angels. In the future, it'll be the same when he's judging between his servants.

In daily life, I've seen him judge people immediately (gentle discipline) i.e this one lady was talking badly behind another customer's back, saying how inconsiderate she is, she's so slow counting her coins; and then, come her turn, she couldn't find her change and was holding up the line. She turned around embarrassed and apologized to everyone there. God humbled her immediately.

• Zephaniah 3:5 (NIV)
  
  5 The Lord within her is righteous;
     he does no wrong.
     Morning by morning he dispenses his justice,
     and every new day he does not fail,
     yet the unrighteous know no shame.

He brings discipline quite often, but total abandonment usually doesn't come until you're totally obstinate in sin with no intentions to turn away from it ever. There's absolutely no more correction that he can give you because you've rejected it all (and thus Him). Then he'll abandon a person / group of people.

In keeping with the struggle between "thoughts and action": take a look at King David. On the one hand, God says King David shared his heart,

• 1 Samuel 13:14 (NIV)
  
  14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after
  his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not
  kept the Lord’s command.”
  
  
  
• Acts 13:22 (NIV)
  
  22 After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning
  him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do
  everything I want him to do.’

...yet, on the otherhand, how can someone who shares God's heart desire to break his law: he started out by lusting after another man's wife, coveted her, summoned her to him, had sex with her, and then killed her husband (to make her his). David murdered Uriah to steal his wife, pre-meditated that thought and brought it to action, because of a lust and greed David felt within himself [he had plenty of other wives and concubines—which is unwise to begin with—but no, he wanted another, greedy, greedy, greedy]. David didn't personally shed Uriah's blood, but David came up with the plan that would).

• 2 Samuel 11:26-27 (NIV)
  
  26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.
  
  
• 2 Samuel 12:9 (NIV)
  
  9 Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

He violated commandments that merited death (idolatry, having other things as his God [his own desires], committing adultery, coveting, greed). Thank God that only God witnessed it, otherwise, at the hand of two or three truthful witnesses, he could've been put to death. God chose to have mercy on David (withholding what he deserved—death).

• Proverbs 10:16 (NIV)
  
  16 The wages of the righteous is life,
      but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death.
  

But the reason David had a pure heart, in God's eyes, was because of his attitude towards sin once he realized he was in it. He didn't try to justify it (none of this, "what I did is not that bad"); he acknowledged that this was wrong of him to do. The prophet Nathan told him a parable to make David realize that his actions were unjust and greedy (if you want to read the parable, read 2 Samuel 12), but I'll only be quoting three verses to draw attention to how David responded after realizing his sin:

• 2 Samuel 12:13-15 (NIV)
  
  13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
  
  Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for[a] the Lord, the son born to you will die.”
  
  15 After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill.
  
  Footnotes:
  
  a. 2 Samuel 12:14 An ancient Hebrew scribal tradition; Masoretic Text for the enemies of
  

Our Heavenly Father will forgive your actions, but sometimes after taking that thought into action, there will be natural consequences to deal with (so if you lusted after someone in your thoughts, that you have no business lusting after because they're not your spouse, and took that further into action, by having sex with them physically, you could get an STD, unwanted pregnancy, provoke your own death or someone else's. [As an aside though: even if you keep it in your thoughts only, that's a lot of time wasted, and you're dangerously fueling lust all the while, which will drive you crazy; it's for your own good that he says not to covet things that aren't yours; if you struggle with lustful thoughts, turn that thought into a prayer for that person you're thinking of. Don't allow the flesh to turn things into immorality])..

In this case, it seems like the illness in King David's child was provoked supernaturally by God as judgment, not so much natural consequence, (but maybe it was a little bit of both, considering the state Bathsheba was in when David had sex with her). But anyway, if you do NOT want to reap death, then do not allow the thought to take root and fester the way it did with David.

• James 1:14-15 (NIV)
  
  14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
  

Change Your Mind Diet

To clean up your thought life and prevent this altogether: aside from submitting your thoughts to Christ when they cross your mind, submit what you feed your mind to Christ too: inspect what information you're feeding your heart—via books, music, films, TV shows, fan fiction, radio, podcasts, people you hang around with and converse with, and why you're allowing this information in front of your eyes and ears. Whether you want to or not, subconsciously you will start acting, talking, thinking like them if you brought this information to yourself willingly.

And all information going into your mind and heart will spring up as thoughts.

A note about people: I'm not saying to avoid all sinners, in life or in your entertainment; otherwise you'd have to avoid every single human being on the planet. Avoid those individuals whose worldly perspectives are influencing you/your attitudes/your habits negatively, instead of you being the salt of the earth, a light in their life, to help them repent of wicked ways. And if they're a believer, and insist on not repenting, you're not suppose to fellowship with them.

• 1 Corinthians 5:9-11 (NIV)
  
  9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister[a] but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
  
  Footnotes:
  
  a. 1 Corinthians 5:11 The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family; also in 8:11, 13.

They give Christ a bad name. Do not be their accomplice. They will corrupt your morals because that's who you're tight with (that's what fellowshiping is: your constant companions in Christ).

So, analyze your life to see: what you nourish yourself with and who you spend most of your time with (even if you're hanging out with them just in your thoughts or behind a screen). Clean up the information, cut out the junk, the things that are inhibiting your godly walk, and replace it with Godly input/thoughts/information; replace ungodly companions/buddy-buddy tight friendships with believers who walk in the Holy Spirit not in the flesh (anyone can go to church, but not everyone is serious about walking in the Spirit). The information we feed ourselves from all these sources will affect us and our thoughts: the thoughts they put into our heads will either keep us on the narrow path in safety or make us deviate, little by little, until we find ourselves totally off course and sympathizing with evil (calling evil "good" and good "evil").

David filled his eyes with Bathsheba's nakedness. How did he even get to that point? Instead of going out to battle, instead of going out to protect and serve, like he used to, he stayed in comfort.

• 2 Samuel 11:1-5 (NIV)
  
  11 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
  
  2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
  

Like David, we usually get off course the moment we start indulging our own desires / pleasing self. We're here to serve God, not the desires of the flesh. So, once you analyze what comes into your mind (and your intentions for having it in front of your eyes/ears)—to glorify God or please self—then analyze how much time you're allocating towards the activity. Find ways to starve the ungodly recipients of your time (and if you can't totally eliminate them out of your life, and you can't purify them, then limit your interaction with it). Whatever you willingly spend most of your time on (and whoever you spend most of your time with), is what will mold you: it will either be God and His Holy Spirit or the world and your own flesh.

• Romans 8:5 (NIV)
  
  5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh
  desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set
  on what the Spirit desires.
  
  
• Romans 8:13 (NIV)
  
  13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put
  to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
  
  
  
• Galatians 5:16-17 (NIV)
  
  16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
  17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is
  contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not
  to do whatever[a] you want.
  
  Footnotes:
  
  a. Galatians 5:17 Or you do not do what
  
  
  
• 1 Corinthians 15:33 (NIV)
  
  33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”[a]
  
  Footnotes:
  
  a. 1 Corinthians 15:33 From the Greek poet Menander
  
  

Some times we are our own worst company. Some times it's the people around us, or the people on the screen we spend most of our time with.

Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. And yet, self-discipline is something Paul said he would have to beat into his body:

• Galatians 5:22-24 (NIV)
  
  22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness,
  goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things
  there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh
  with its passions and desires.
  
  
  
• 1 Corinthians 9:27 (NIV)
  
  27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
  

If I don't stay vigilant of my own attitudes, and the reason why I'm participating in something (to please God or please myself), it's very easy for the flesh to start making decisions.

So this comes down to good ol' discipline and fasting: cut worldly things out of your life, for a time, or permanently, so you can better focus on God, godly activities and serving others. Replace activities (or your lack of activity) with what will keep you focused on God and godly attributes (speaking to God [prayer], listening to God [meditating upon his word, studying his word, analyzing what crosses your path that day in light of his word], praising God through music, serving his Kingdom, helping others, helping other believers, "helping" the way God defines helping, don't help people poison themselves). That way you prevent falling into sensuality (where the 5 senses of the flesh—instead of God's Word—are driving your decisions, reactions, and thoughts).

Another key ingredient in combating temptation is prayer:

• Psalm 51:10 (NIV)
  
  10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
      and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
  
  
• Mark 14:38 (NIV)
  
  38 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.
  The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Ask God for that pure heart. Watch and pray. Watch what? The sources of temptation in your life, attacks from the enemy and from your flesh. So, like I said, analyze the information coming into your mind via eyes and ears.

I'm talking a lot about feeding the eyes and ears, but I suspect the literal food we eat plays a part in our thoughts as well. Back when I was a sugar addict, and only ate to please the taste buds (thus not honoring the function God gave to food [nor the function God gave the tongue]: food for the stomach and to strengthen you [1 Kings 19:5-8; 1 Samuel 28:20, 22; Ecclesiastes 10:17; 1 Corinthians 6:13], and the taste buds to help you discern if something is food or not, ripe enough or rotted, edible at all or poison [2 Kings 4:39-40; Matthew 27:34]), I was pretty scatter-brained. Sugar made me hyper and my attention span wasn't the best. I did not nourish myself well. I ate junk food and ate junk thoughts (which produced more junk thoughts). And those junk thoughts came, not only from my own flesh, but also from the entertainment I watched. I was "programmed" for lack of a better word (but it's accurate) to throw out random phrases, that would allude to other things in popular culture, just because it was funny. But the words were idle, not edifying or beneficial to the listener. It's like how bumblebee (the transformer, at least the one in the movie) speaks in radio phrases (references to pop culture). Now, I quote God's words, but before, it'd be the words of my idols (and they were many). Even now, if I'm not careful of what I start cherishing in my heart, I find myself repeating things / singing things out randomly that others say. Usually, it's something I chose to spend time watching, and delighted in, even if it's idle / lacks substance / value.

So be careful what you put inside of your heart in the first place.

Literally, "watch" (analyze) what you "eat" / ingest / consume / take in. And pray. Be careful of what you place in front of your eyes and ears to begin with.

• Psalm 101:3 (CJB)
  
  3 I will not allow before my eyes
      any shameful thing.
      I hate those who act crookedly;
      what they do does not attract me.

...because what you feed yourself, through your eyes, goes into your mind and heart. Everything you do or even think about is based on what's in your heart (is it God or is it the world).

• Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)
  
  23 Above all else, guard your heart,
      for everything you do flows from it.
  
  
  
• Matthew 15:19 (NIV)
  
  19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual
  immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
  
  
  
• Luke 6:45 (NIV)
  
  45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart,
  and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.
  For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
  
  
  
• Psalm 119:11 (NIV)
  
  11 I have hidden your word in my heart
  that I might not sin against you.
  

To know if you have his approval:

• Galatians 1:10 (NIV)
  
  10 Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
  
  
• Proverbs 29:25 (NIV)
  
  25 Fear of man will prove to be a snare,
      but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.
  

Don't fear man's opinion. Speak up in favor of God's commands even when you know they won't appreciate you pointing out their sins.

And just plain ask him if you're in his approval. He will answer. And as someone who is born-again, you won't have inner peace if something is not right.

• 1 Thessalonians 2:4 (NIV)
  
  4 On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with
  the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.
  
  
  
• Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV)
  
  23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
      test me and know my anxious thoughts.
  24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
      and lead me in the way everlasting.
  
  
  
• Psalm 26:2-7 (NIV)
  
  2 Test me, Lord, and try me,
      examine my heart and my mind;
  3 for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love
      and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness.
  4 I do not sit with the deceitful,
      nor do I associate with hypocrites.
  5 I abhor the assembly of evildoers
      and refuse to sit with the wicked.
  6 I wash my hands in innocence,
      and go about your altar, Lord,
  7 proclaiming aloud your praise
      and telling of all your wonderful deeds.
  
  
  
• Proverbs 27:21 (NIV)
  
  21 The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
      but people are tested by their praise.
  
  

What do you speak well of? Do you speak well of God? his commands? or do you insult him? and speak well of what he calls evil? Those are indicators of being in his approval or not. You can't be in his approval while loving what is sin, and hating his law.

• Romans 8:7-9 (NIV)
  
  7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
  
  9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.

I tried to keep this short. sweatdrop

If I can summarize all of this in a few words:

- watch what you eat through your eyes, ears and mouth (because that will determine your thoughts)
- submit everything to Christ, the Word of God
- seek to honor God and his commands in all you do; he will be with you