The Hidden World of Our Thoughts

Man is sometimes called the masterpiece of God’s creation. God has given man the ability of thinking. Body and spirit belong together. The ability to think raises man to a level above all other creatures. That wonderful ability to think is an element of the image of God in which man was created. Also after the fall that ability to think was not taken away. Our thoughts are the material with which we work.

It is well worth our time to consider the hidden world of our thoughts. It is also part of practical Christianity. Also our thoughts shall be judged by the Lord.

We read in Ecclesiastes 12: God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing. The thoughts of man belong also to the works of man. In the Bible, the Word of God, the mouth of truth, we can read the condition of the thoughts of man. We read the following:

Genesis 6:5: And Cod saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of his heart was only evil continually.

Judges 5:15: For the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart.

1 Chronicles 28:9: For the Lord search-eth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts.

Job 20:2: Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer and for this I make haste.

Psalm 10:4: The wicked will not seek after Cod, God is not in all their thoughts.

Psalm 56:5: All their thoughts are against me for evil.

Psalm 94:11: The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

Psalm 119:113: I hate vain thoughts.

Psalm 139:23: Try me and know my thoughts.

Proverbs 12:5: The thoughts of the right-eous are right.

Proverbs 15:26: The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord.

Isaiah 55:7: Let the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts.

Jeremiah 4:14: How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee?

Jeremiah 6:19: Hear, O earth, behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts.

Matthew 9:14: And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?

Matthew 15:19: For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts….

Luke 2:35: The thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

If we consider these texts seriously, we must come to the conclusion that it is urgently necessary that we give attention to the thoughts of man. I believe that it is a forgotten area, or an area to which we admit no one, and think we can do as we please. Our thoughts never stand still, and they are not always good thoughts. The world of our thoughts can be an area full of terror and sin, vanity and foolishness. There can be thoughts of fear and anguish, of discouragement and despair, of actual and imagined dangers. In our thoughts there may be times of great distress and terror, days of continuous misery. Our spirit can harbor and nourish deep feelings of enmity that darken our life and paralyze our strength. There are nervous sicknesses that bring hideous visions to our mind.

So the world of our thoughts can be a fountain of much misery, sin, and grief. Our thoughts can be a great power for good or for evil. Our thoughts are the materials with which we work. Every deed, before it is executed, is first formed in the spirit of man, in his thoughts. As a man thinks, so he is. Before sin is committed, we first have a sinful thought. Before we utter a lie, we first think a lie. There are also many thoughts that never become acts. In our thoughts we can kill a person, hate a person, or commit adultery with a person. There can be hateful thoughts, jealous, unclean thoughts that are never uttered. But also such hidden thoughts are sins in God’s sight.

In the Judgment Day we must also give account of our thoughts. The light of God’s holy and everlasting law also shines into the hidden world of our thoughts. Especially the spiritual scope of the law has effect upon our thoughts. It is a discovering word in Genesis 6:5: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” By the enlightening and discovery of the Spirit of God we become afraid of our own heart. With David we pray:

Blot out all my iniquities,
And hide my sins from view;
Create in me a spirit right,
O God, my heart renew.

Let us pray to the Lord that our thoughts may be regulated according to God’s Word, and that the Lord will give us good and pure thoughts.

The deeds of the rich young man were indeed good. He could say in truth, “All these have I kept from my youth up.” Before his conversion, Paul’s life was blameless according to the law. But the thoughts of both of these rich young men were evil and full of enmity against the Lord. Let us pray much for the discovering light of the Spirit of God, so that we may learn to know ourselves thoroughly. We must not only take care of our physical health but also of our spiritual health, the world of our thoughts. Our body must function well, but also our spirit.

The power of heart-renewing grace also has a renewing influence upon our thoughts. There must be a spiritual balance between our deeds, words, and thoughts. A spiritually healthy person is one whose broken fellowship with God has been restored. His life is as we read of Enoch — he “walked with God.” Such were the lives of Zacharias and Elisabeth, and Job, who were righteous, walking in all the commandments of the Lord, blameless. “The thoughts of the righteous are right” (Prov. 12:15). They have good thoughts of the Lord, of His work and grace, of His Word, His house, His day and His people. They have good thoughts of Christ.

They climb up by faith to God’s thoughts, thoughts of peace, flowing from His eternal Council of Peace. In amazement and adoration they cry out, “How precious are Thy thoughts unto me, O GOD!” Here lies their comfort and joy, and also their strength to fight against their own sinful thoughts. Then their heart is filled with holy meditations, and they sing the sweetest song of and for their King.

We always ask each other about our physical welfare: “How are you?” Dear friend, in this article I am asking you about your spiritual welfare. How are you?

The health of the spirit must be based upon the Bible and the life of faith of the Bible saints.

And what does God’s Word teach us? What must we think about?

We read in Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” In 2 Corinthians 10:5 we read, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

Let us always be afraid of our own wrong thoughts. When we give our thoughts a loose rein, we end wrong. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

The true Christian is not a mystic dreamer, who drifts and floats on everything that comes to his mind, but he lives out of the power and by the clear light of God’s Word.

In connection with the health of our thoughts, I want to say something about the psychology of colors: Some colors are warm, others cold; some happy, others somber. Colors influence the human spirit. Black tends to seriousness and sadness. Blue speaks of melancholy. Green is the color of jealousy and suspicion. Throughout the world white is the color of purity. We speak of pure (white) innocence, of pure honesty.

There are people whose thought-life is dark, almost black. When you hear them speak (and that is the expression of their thoughts), they always speak of the dark side of life. They prefer to speak about accidents, the increase of cancer patients, or funerals. Their thoughts circle around melancholy subjects. For them the Bible is the book of God’s judgments and punishment. They read nothing but sin, misery, judgment and darkness. Usually spiritual grief and brokenness are lacking in this, also the hearty longing and desire to be delivered from it. They do not realize that they love the darkness rather than the light.

There are others whose world of thought is colored green. They are envious and jealous of many. They would like to be where others are. They are suspicious of others who have richer and more experiences than they. They cannot endure the light in others. They demean themselves by speaking ill of another behind his back, and by making trouble. They rarely speak a good word about others, but prefer to talk about their own experiences and about themselves.

There are others whose thoughts are gray. The thoughts they utter leave the impression that their souls are like a stinking sewer. They are people whose thoughts are filled with filth. Offensive stories, profane remarks, and such things, flow continually out of their mouth, for “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts.”

There are others whose thoughts are blue. They worry about everything and then some. They are often discouraged and downhearted. They see the path of life lying before them, and at every curve in the road they are sure something will go wrong. They see dangers behind them and threats before them, and always have reasons to be seriously concerned. They suffer most from the suffering they fear, which seldom transpires. They figure with their own possibilities or impossibilities, but do not figure with God’s providence. That faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, lies far beyond their reach.

I have given you just a few tests by which you can search your heart. Consider, my dear readers, the hidden world of your thoughts. With what do we feed and govern our thoughts? What is the color of your thoughts? We all think, without intermission, even during the night while sleeping our thoughts are busy. We must use means, with the blessing of the Lord, to control our thoughts. What we see and what we hear also determines our thoughts. David prayed, ‘Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity.” Let us shun evil companions, and join ourselves to those who fear and love the Lord. Fill your spirit with thoughts of God. In other words, fill yourselves with God’s Word, and meditate upon what is read. Make your spirit fruitful by reading what our godly fathers have left us in their writings.

When God created man, the color of their thoughts was white. Thoughts were clean, unspotted and pure. They were full of God and His work. Their spiritual health was perfect. By the fall this was all broken, and our thoughts became full of iniquity. In regeneration the entire man is renewed according to God’s image. Our thinking must be governed by faith in Jesus Christ. For when our soul is washed in the blood of Christ, that will also be the case with the world of our thoughts. Only by communion with God is our thought life brought to the right place.

May the Lord by His Spirit teach us to know ourselves in this hidden part of our life. May the knowledge that He knows, sees and hears everything cause us to fear before Him. We must learn repeatedly to pray, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Read and meditate about what Paul writes in Romans 7:13-26. The child of God is a burden to himself. He battles against the hidden thoughts of his heart. He mourns over inward corruption, and begs for God’s grace to oppose hidden sins. He wrestles and strives to be renewed after the image of Christ. If our heart is filled with that, we acquire other thoughts.

Dear readers, enter into the world of your thoughts.

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper then any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Heb. 4:12-13). ?

May the goal of our guidance at home, church, and school be “that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” To that end Christian guidance strives to give thoughtful assistance to the child that by God’s grace he may live a full, productive life that honors God with the talents with which God has blessed him. ?

Rev. H. Hofman is pastor of the Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Kalamazoo, Michigan.

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