Have you ever noticed the connection between your thoughts and your actions? How and what you think plays a very important role in determining your actions. I was thinking the other day about the standards I had set for myself when I first got turned on to God and compared them with the standards I have now. I was disappointed to see that they had lowered.

What happened between then and now that made me change my mind about the things I was so sure of before? I realized that the problem was in my mind. I had stopped guarding my thoughts. I started to think about those things that I had set standards against, making up scenarios in my mind. And, without consciously knowing it, I decided those things weren’t so bad after all. This is very dangerous because immoral thoughts often lead to immoral actions. Jesus stressed the issue of keeping your thoughts pure in Matthew 5:21-22 & 27-28 when he said that harboring hatred and anger against someone in your heart is like committing murder, and that looking at someone and thinking lustful thoughts is the same as committing adultery. Proverbs 23:7 pretty well sums it up -- “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”Paul instructs us in II Corinthians 10:5 that we are to, “Cast down imaginations, and everything that exalts itself above the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

When I realized where I’d gone wrong by letting my guard down, I immediately asked God to forgive me and asked Him to help me keep my thoughts and heart pure. God is fixing to move upon the youth and use us in a mighty way. However, if we wish to be used of God and fulfill His call on our lives, we must meet His requirements by living a life of purity. Purity gets its foundation in the mind. We must guard our thoughts and our minds like never before.

It was a wise man who once said:
“Watch your thoughts; they become your words.
Watch your words; they become your actions.
Watch your actions; they become your habits.
Watch your habits; they become your character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”

By: Alyssa Merka

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