Recognizing Evil Thoughts by Watching

God is clear in His Word that He wants us to keep our eyes upon Him. This daily devotional begins to look at how watching Him helps us to order our thoughts.

Nuggets

  • We resist sin by evaluating ourselves with a watchful eye.
  • We watch for God to work in our inward and outward lives.
  • Most of all, we need to actively watch for Jesus’ return.
  • Watching and waiting does not mean doing nothing.

To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.

Devotions in the How Do We Live Godly Lives? series

Sin can sneak up in us. Satan is a master at hey-it’s-harmless — when it really isn’t.

If we aren’t looking for Satan and his shenanigans, we are easier prey for him. If the eye of our heart is closed, then our souls are open for Satan’s destructive temptations.

The best way to keep watching is through prayer. We’ve talked about both topics many times before.

Let’s look at what we’ve said before we use Charnock’s verse to apply it specifically to thoughts. This is going to take a couple of devotions.

“The third sort of directions are for the ordering of evil thoughts, when they do intrude; and” (Charnock, The Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts)

Let's Put It into Context

We’ve been looking at Charnock’s sermon entitled The Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts to show us how to cleanse, a.k.a. sanctify, our thought processes. Charnock has taught us

  • that we cleanse our thoughts when we return to having a strong relationship with God. We can do that by studying the Scriptures, meditating on God, contemplating on His creation, and praising Him.
  • that we focus our thoughts by being humble instead of prideful, following God instead of the worldview, working instead of being idle, and laboring for Him.
  • that we overcome our evil thoughts by burying ourselves in Scripture, relying on His omniscience and judgment, guarding our hearts and lips, evaluating ourselves, and recognizing evil thoughts, especially hating sin and resisting Satan.

Resource

Glossary

Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.

Resisting Sin by Watching

“Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart” (Col. 4: 2 NLT)

We resist sin by evaluating ourselves with a watchful eye.

Watchfulness is a continual conscious examination of ourselves and all events so that we may follow God in all things. We’ve used several words to portray the actions of being watchful:

  • Watch
  • Be alert
  • Be on guard
  • Focus

All of these mean that we are not only looking outside of ourselves, but we are also looking up to God to help us in whatever we are facing.

Being on alert is a military term. You know, post the guard to keep watch so the rest will be safe while they are sleeping. Someone is on watch all the time.

The point Colossians 4: 2 is making is we have to watch for temptations to come. We have to watch against Satan trying to get us to sin.

Satan is the master manipulator. If we aren’t careful, we’ve sinned.
What we have to watch is, because of our sinful nature, our hearts want to rebel against God. If we aren’t alert, we are more readily able to slip into sin when Satan is tempting us. If we aren’t careful, we can slide away from the path on which God wants us.

Disciples are called to watch the culture of the world in which we live. Culture is made up of a lot of things. Religion and values are a part of it. Language and marriage are included. Then add in food, clothing, music, and such. Then … there are a lot of other things thrown in. That is a lot of things to watch, more than we can do on our own.

Disciples are called to watch the culture of the world in which we live.

We have to watch the kind of company we are keeping. We also have to watch the words we use. God calls us to be different from the world, not using the same coarse language. I know. It is easy to let it slip in. We need to imitate God, instead.

Resisting Sin by Watching for God

We watch for God to work in our inward and outward lives.

It isn’t all just watching for the bad stuff. It is watching for God. Sometimes, we have to really pay attention, or we will miss opportunities — to serve and for God’s blessings.

But did you see what the definition said? Watching is a continual examination of ourselves.

Watching is a continual examination of ourselves.

It isn’t just watching the outside. We have to watch the inside. We’ve been calling it evaluating — but same thing.
We can use the times when we evaluate our faith to refocus on God and what He is calling us to do.

  • We need to make sure we are following the do’s and don’ts to the best of our ability.
  • We need to make sure we are on the path on which He wants us to be.
  • We have to make sure our relationships with God are growing.

We can only be watching when we open the eyes of our hearts. “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people” (Eph. 1: 18 NIV). It is a metaphorical way of saying we need to open ourselves to God’s power and love.

Really, the opposite of having evil thoughts is opening the eyes of our hearts. When we open ourselves to God, we look above our understanding to God. He may be doing the impossible thing in our lives, but He can.

To me, opening the eyes of our hearts means that we put our full faith in God. We acknowledge that God is living within us and we are obedient in responding to Him. We are submitting to Him.

We don’t rely on our own understanding or push our own agenda. We are looking to Him to reveal things to us a little at a time.

That kicks out the doubt. It brings in the trust.

Glossary

We need to focus inward to tap into God’s foundation of peace, mercy, and love. When we open the eyes of our hearts, we see Him within us.

The watchfulness has to be motivated by the love of the Lord. We have to want to be like Him.

Resisting Sin by Watching for Jesus

Most of all, we need to actively watch for Jesus’ return.

“Watch therefore — for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning — lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch” (Mk. 13: 35-37 RSV). He is coming back.

Whether mankind’s time is up or our time is up individually, we have to be prepared to meet our Maker.

Jesus wants us to actively be alert. He wants us to be continuously on guard.

Whether mankind’s time is up or our time is up individually, we have to be prepared to meet our Maker.

Resisting Sin by Watching and Waiting Diligently

Watching and waiting does not mean doing nothing.

I think that it is very easy, sometimes, to equate watching with waiting. We think we aren’t doing anything.

We learned in The Silence of Waiting on God that resting and waiting are actions. They are conscious decisions.

To read a related devotion, click the button below.

We aren’t doing nothing. We are putting our trust in Him that He will work in the fullness of His time.

Watching means we are diligent. Diligence is a consistent, persistent effort through repentance to obey God’s laws and commandments.

Our diligence is fueled by soul-craving. We must be soul-craving, hungering for God with our souls.

We know that to be soul-craving, we must yearn to know God. That is, we must want it badly.

That leads us to be diligently seeking God. This diligence should be exercised in every part of our walk.
God wants us to look to Him for … everything.

  • The rules that guide our lives.

  • The character that forms us.

  • How we interact with others.

When we commit our lives to God, He wants it to be a total commitment. He wants our intensity and passion to complete the service to which He calls us. We show that commitment when we watch for Him.

We have to watch that we don’t get discouraged when Jesus doesn’t come when we think He should. Our charge was to watch until He came.

Patience is a steadfast endurance in opposition without losing a positive attitude. If we don’t have patience, we won’t be waiting or watching.

To read a related devotion, click the appropriate button below.

RecognizingEvilThoughtsByWatchingPin

Making the Connections

We can only accomplish our redo through Christ. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4: 13 KJV).  It is only when we receive God’s power do we realize how weak we are.

Father God. We look to You. It is Your character we wish to have. It is Your laws and commandments we wish to follow. Help us to discern Your Will. Amen.

What do you think?

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