Be on your guard not to let the base thought get the upper hand in your heart.  DEUTERONOMY 15:9 MLB

As we read God’s Word, we should pay attention to waving red flags repeatedly warning us to be careful as we make our way through life. God cautions us to beware of falling into the evil one’s clever trap of compromise and idolatry. Over and over Scripture counsels discretion—telling us to avoid faddish foolishness and seek timeless wisdom.

At all costs, we must never give in to mindlessness. We would not think of swimming in shark-infested waters—then why live recklessly in a world ruled by invisible forces of the dark side? Wisdom stays on the alert spiritually!

We are not what we think we are; but what we think, we are. We are the product of our thoughts; so we should be careful what we permit to enter our mind. What we put into our mind may eventually come out in words and actions. It’s a good idea to occasionally review what we are feeding our mind through television, movies, magazines, and the Internet. It’s certainly a good idea never to consume moral garbage! Most importantly, we should daily read heaven’s Textbook for Living.

Over the course of our lifetime, we can learn to focus our mind on what is good, and make it a habit to fix our thoughts on wholesome ideas. It takes practice to change how we think, but faith makes it possible. Guarding our mind, we can fill it with the beautiful, not the ugly. Programming our mental computer with true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, kind, lofty, and worthy thoughts—we make this formula for excellence the charter for our thought life.

We should never tell our self that our thoughts are hidden from God. Our inner life is transparent to the One who perfectly understands human nature. Our Creator understands us better than we know our self. This being the case, it is best for us to be open and honest with the Lord.

To ensure that vulgar and low ideas do not predominate our mind, we can overcome the deadly poison of evil with the antidote of goodness. With God’s help, we can cancel dishonesty with truth, self-centeredness with sacrificial love, perversion with purity, obscenity with decency, criticism with compliments, and mean-spiritedness with generosity. Above all, we should give God first place—running from false gods of the mind threatening to steal loyalty we owe him.

Letting God be our Best Thought day and night is the best way to conscientiously guard our mind gate.

Johnny R. Almond

Pastor, Hull’s Memorial Baptist Church

Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity

Devotion based on day 100