Or they can lead us further away.
It depends on what we do when we have them.
They might be thoughts of jealousy, or judgement, or anger, or unforgiveness, they might be thoughts of wanting what we cannot have, or thoughts of adultery, or unkind thoughts against another person.
They might be unkind thoughts against ourselves, our minds can be like a soup of our past, with bits floating to the surface, from yesterday, a decade ago, from the media, who can say.
If we entertain those thoughts, permit them, enjoy them, follow them, we allow them to become words, and deeds, they take us further away from Christ.
If we just allow one sinful thought to roll into the next, and the next, and the next, they take us further from Christ.
If however, we capture those sinful thoughts, and give them to Christ, for him to dispose of however he sees fit, then those sinful thoughts bring us closer to him.
If we give them to him, as parts of ourselves we do not want, in exchange for parts of him he does want us to have, those sinful thoughts bring us closer to the nature and self of Jesus.
It’s a part of the process of giving our lives to him.
Giving ourselves, one sinful thought at a time.
How many times a day can we do that?
A dozen? More?
So we are thereby spending ongoing time in intimate communication and communion with Jesus, giving him aspects of ourselves we know are not worthy and receiving in return aspects from himself, indeed, his own self, as Spirit.
This we become more like him, and in doing so and being so, are able to enter into higher levels of relationship with him.
We might not be able to prevent sinful thoughts from entering our minds, they come from the past, from the surroundings, from the devil even, perhaps, who knows, but come they do.
But if for each one we see it, stop it, and give it to the Lord Jesus, those sinful thoughts become fuel for the fire of Christ within.
Written by Bird Lovegod
