“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”
Revelation 3:15-16 (ESV)
One thing a Christian faces, whether new in the Lord or has spent decades of faithful discipleship, is a heart that is wandering – straying, meandering, and deviating from its primary focus of loving and serving God. Even if we have found the Pearl of Great Price and the greatest Hidden Treasure, our hearts continue to desire something more or different. Why is this happening? Why can’t we always have a will that is true, straight, faithful, and focused on God?
Wandering hearts and thoughts can take many forms – desiring old sins or old ways of living, sexual fantasies and impurities, envying the successful, rich and famous, a desire to seek revenge from those who hurt us in the past, fantasising about potential wealth, fame, and power, and so on. They could also result in regrets about major decisions we have made in our lives. Each one of us is vulnerable to a drifting heart that can lead us away from God. We can be so engrossed in all these things that we can be sidetracked in our walk with God, and this can lead us astray back to our old ways of living. The saying is true: “Sow a thought, and you reap an action; sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character; sow a character, and you reap a destiny.” [R W Emerson] This works for good thoughts but also for the bad ones.
One reason why our hearts still stray is because of our unredeemed human nature, our flesh. Our weakened inner being is still there and will never be completely gone until we die. The world also entices us to seek and taste what it offers – seemingly good things, but they are empty promises and pleasures in the end. Lastly, our enemy, the devil, also influences us to compromise our hearts and slowly leave the fervour of our first love for God [see Revelations 2:4].
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
1 Peter 5:8 (ESV)
What can we do? How can we prevent our minds and wills from deviating from our decision to follow God with all of our lives for the rest of our lives? By being watchful, and sober-minded, controlling thoughts and making them captive in Christ. [See 2 Corinthians 10:5] We need to regularly examine the thoughts that pass through our minds, whether they are Godly or not. Our thought standards can be found in Paul’s Letter to the Philippians:
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
Philippians 4:8 (ESV)
If our thoughts are the opposites of the above, we should refuse to entertain those and channel our thoughts to the right things once again.
If we give in to some wandering thoughts for a while and are unaware of them, our regular prayer time and Scripture should help us correct them. In prayer, let us bring to the Lord what has been occupying our minds lately and offer them to the Lord. Are we afraid or unwilling to offer them to the Lord? That is a signal that our minds are meandering and going astray. As we read the Bible, are our thoughts following God’s ways? Let us get rid of those stray, unredeemed thoughts and get back to those good and honourable thoughts. Let us repent and decide to no longer think of them again. If they try to come back, let us remember we repented of them, and they are black-listed in our thought patterns.
Let us take care of media inputs that come to our attention. The world has a different set of values and thinking about yourself [me first], money and wealth [accumulate them], security [the richer you are, the better], and so on. The Bible offers a contradictory set of values and thinking, and it should be our primary source of information that forms our thinking and attitude about anything. The friends we keep are another good medium through which we can get information, values and ways of thinking. We need to choose whom we primarily associate with and those with whom we have no control [like officemates, schoolmates and neighbours]; we need to influence them to Godly thinking rather than be persuaded by their ways of thinking.
As long as we aspire to follow the Lord, seek to follow Him always, are faithful in daily prayer and scripture, and focus on God and Heaven, our wandering hearts and thoughts will be trained in a holy way of living. As we mature in the Lord, we will have fewer and fewer opportunities for our meandering minds to go astray and lead us away from God. We will also find it easier to detect wild and stray thoughts and change and walk in the light of the Holy Spirit again.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armour of God so that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.
Ephesians 6:10-18 (ESV)
Top image credit: Young Christian man reflecting, photo by Keem Ibarra, from Uplash.com. Free to use under the Unsplash License. Scripture passage from Philippians 4:8 added.
Tom Caballes is a National Coordinator of the Lamb of God, a community of the Sword of the Spirit with seven branches located throughout New Zealand. Tom and his wife Mhel and their two daughters [with his son-in-law and grand-daughter] live in Wellington, New Zealand.