December 11, 2025

Minding Your Thoughts

A Biblical Overview of Obtaining and Maintaining a Biblical Thought Life

Genesis 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Notice the words “every imagination,” such an indictment seems impossible. That every imagination was evil continually is unbelievable. Yet, God’s Word says it is so, before the flood this was the case. Based upon the timeline of the Bible, the dawn of creation took place around 4,000 BC, Noah lived around 2,400 BC. Therefore in about 1,600 years the human race fell from Adam and Eve walking with God in the Garden of Eden to the thoughts and imagination of mankind being evil all the time.

Many times throughout Scripture man has drawn close to God only to then fall away from Him. The book of Judges begins with the words: Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them? God’s people were searching for God’s will, His direction, and they seemed to totally lean on Him. Yet, in the last chapter of that book, the very last verse states: In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. The entire book of Judges is a constant cycle of God’s people calling on God for deliverance, being delivered, falling into idolatry, bondage by oppressors, calling on God, and being delivered. The story of this cycle is related at least a dozen times in that one book.

A continual battle for God’s people has always been one of consistency. Nowhere does that battle rage more than in the imagination of the mind. Christians today seem to be much like the Israelites during the time of the Exodus. God delivered His people from bondage under the strong hand of Moses through plagues, miracles, and even the Lord’s personal presence by day and by night. Yet, they failed over and over again. They imagined that the Lord had, or would, forsake them. They imagined that God called them into the wilderness to kill them. They imagined they would starve to death. They imagined that their children would die in the wilderness, yet, their children were the only ones who lived to enter the Promise Land. They imagined evil only continually. God continued to show Himself strong on their behalf, yet in the imagination of their thoughts they forgot His wonderful greatness to them. Many today do the same.

How quickly we forget. Then we begin to imagine. This cycle is so subtle that many do not realize its snare until they are far, far away from the Lord. James says of these, For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. (James 1:24)  Why? Because they did not do the Word, they were hearers only (James 1:21-25). The number one antidote for continued evil imaginations of the thoughts of the heart is hearing and obeying the Word of God.

May the Lord bless and be pleased with your thought life today.

Dr. William Howe