Controlling Wandering Thoughts

In a youth conference, one of the preachers came to me and said, “Most of the believers both young and old, have problems in overcoming evil thoughts. It is high time for us to write a booklet on overcoming evil thoughts”. The preacher was right in saying that many believers have problems in this area, they need to be enlightened about their harmfulness and how to handle them.

God had created man with the ability to imagine. But fallen man is now using this power of imagination to create multitude of images that is forbidden for him. It is said that over 10,000 unwanted and forbidden images pass through our mind every day, and most of them are evil thoughts, which affect our actions. About twenty five years ago, when I was a student in the college, I was invited to preach in the Church meeting along with another pastor. I was challenged by the commitment and concern of the pastor for the souls. His messages came with the power of the Holy Spirit and with authority. When I talked with him at that time, I came to know that he was a pastor in a growing independent Church. Within a few years his Church grew from a handful of believers to hundreds of believers. Hundreds of believers attended the gospel meeting and fasting prayer meeting in his Church. Gifts of the Holy Spirit and miracles were the common phenomenon in those meetings. He was married and had two children. His wife was also involved in all the Church activities, and their family was considered as a model family by many people. 

The pastor used to pray for the needs of the people, on all Sundays, after the gospel meeting. One day a mother with her young daughter stayed back for the prayer. The pastor prayed for their needs. After they left, the pastor could not forget them and their need. The mother had lost her husband recently and was in need of a helper to guide her daughter. The pastor was carried away by the beauty of the girl. 

Next Sunday, the same family stayed back for prayer. The pastor prayed with them. Later the girl came alone to meet the pastor for prayer and counselling. So far the pastor had never been unfaithful to his wife. But now he began to think about the girl often. One day he told her that he liked her and wanted to marry her. He said that he cannot live without her. This led to many secret meetings and the outcome was that the girl became pregnant. That was the end of the ministry of the pastor, and he had to move away from his Church and live in disgrace. Do you know why the pastor had committed such a sin?

The pastor did not commit the sin all of a sudden. He had been thinking about other women all these years. After years of thinking he had committed this act. His sin is due to many years of thinking on sex. 

Dr Billy Graham while writing about evil thoughts leading to sinful action has rightly stated, “The sin is when we use the temptation for giving in, ‘But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed, then when the desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death’ James 1:14, 15. A thought enters, we pamper it, and it germinates and grows into an evil act”. Thus when one indulges in lustful thoughts, his flesh is aroused to obey to the temptation. This is because the evil thoughts, adulteries and fornications are from the same place and defile a person. “For out of heart proceed evil thoughts… adulteries, fornications… these are the things that defile a man” Matt 15:19, 20.

Evil thoughts are natural and when you get evil thoughts then you are tempted to commit sin. It becomes sin only when you fondle it or entertain it. Martin Luther wrote about resisting the temptation, “I cannot stop the sparrows from flying around my head but I can keep them away from making a nest in my hair”.

Bishop Hognestad wrote about imaginations leading to deadly sin, “Lust is the mother. Sin is the daughter. Who then is the father? Someone said, ‘It is our imagination’. That plays with lust and dress it up so that it is attractive. Imagination gets people to loiter and look at lust. Back of it stands Satan with all his cunning and fascinating tricks. He throws a Spiritual radiance around even the grossest sins of the flesh”. Hence it is very important that we need to identify evil thoughts and overcome them by the power of God. Here are a few Biblical principles of dealing with evil thoughts. 

• Identify your evil thoughts:

“Search me O God, know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” Ps 139:23, 24.

• Judge the thoughts and attitudes of your heart by the Word of God:

“For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and Spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” Heb: 4:12.

• Repent and confess:

“Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps He will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart” Acts 8:22.

• Replace it with good thoughts:

“Finally brothers whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things” Phil 4:8.

• Captivate it by the divine power:

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 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”. II Cor 10:4, 5.