The Pathway to Sin Is Short
For reading & meditation - Romans 8:1-17
"To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the
Spirit is life and peace." (v. 6, RSV)
Although it may be impossible to prevent evil thoughts from
entering your mind, make a conscious decision not to entertain
them. A well-worn phrase puts the same thought in this way: you
can't stop the birds from flying into your hair, but you can
prevent them from building nests. Burns, the famous poet, said that
when he wished to compose a love song, his recipe was to put
himself on "a regimen of admiring a beautiful woman." He
deliberately filled his mind with pictures that were extremely
dangerous to his passionate nature. Shairp, his biographer, said of
him, "When the images came to be oft repeated, it cannot have
tended to his peace of heart or his purity of life." Augustine, one
of the great early Christians, also trod this dangerous path. He
came to Carthage with its tinseled vice and began at once to coax
his own carnal appetites. He said: "I loved not as yet, yet I loved
to love; and with an hidden want I abhorred myself that I wanted
not. I befouled, therefore, the spring of friendship with the filth
of concupiscence, and I dimmed its lustre with the hell of
lustfullness; and yet, foul and dishonorableas I was, I craved,
through an excess of vanity to be thought elegant and vain. I fell;
precipitately then." Augustine's experience, like that of many
others, goes to show the folly of entertaining evil thoughts and
desires. Make up your mind, then, that although you may not be able
to stop evil thoughts crowding into your mind, you will not play
host to them.
Prayer:
Father, although I know what I should do, it is often hard - though
not impossible - to do it. I give my will to You again today. Take
it and strengthen it, so that it will do Your bidding. In Jesus'
Name I pray. Amen.
For Further Study
Pss. 119:1-11; 139:23-24; Prov. 23:7; Matt. 22:37; Phil. 4:8
1. When do evil thoughts become sin?
2. How can we use our thought life productively?
