God makes abundantly clear in the Bible His two greatest commands are to love Him with all our hearts and to love others as ourselves, but I am afraid if you’re anything like I was for years you may have failed to take into account that genuinely loving each other should be clearly evident not only in our actions – BUT ALSO IN OUR THOUGHTS!
The more I follow Jesus, the more time I spend in the Lord’s presence, the more I study the Bible, the more I pray, the more I love the Lord, the more I yearn to obey and glorify Him, the quicker I see when I have grieved Him with sin, the more quickly I want to repent and return to Him, the more I see now how incredibly unloving some of my thoughts can be. And the more I want God to chasten me, lead me to repentance, forgive me, and teach me how to love others right down to my every thought. I want to live in total devotion – and in loving obedience – to God right down to my very thoughts.
Some examples of unloving thoughts. In our minds, criticizing others, judging others, thinking we are better than others, thinking badly of others, condemning others, having vengeful thoughts toward them, wanting others to suffer, planning to get back at people, refusing to forgive them, ridiculing them in our minds, being bitter toward them, envying them, believing the worst about them, lacking kindness, care, and compassion toward them in our hearts, refusing to pray for them when we know God wants us to do so but instead holding yucky thoughts about them inside us, absolutely refusing to love them in our minds because we don’t believe they deserve love and mercy, thinking negatively about them in any way, shape, or form, etc.
You who are reading this, and I who am writing this, let us resolve to humble ourselves before the Lord God almighty and choose through the love and power of the Holy Spirit of God to love others as God commands us to do in our words, actions, and, absolutely yes, in our thoughts. AMEN!
Dear God, forgive me for every time I have ever failed to love whether in thought, word, or action. When I have disobeyed you in any way regarding loving others. Please forgive us all, oh Lord. I pray you would use this message to lead any and all of us to repentance who need it. Forgive us, merciful Lord! And teach us your ways. Teach us to love. Teach us to fill our minds with right thoughts. Ones that honor you and demonstrate we are living in obedience to you, dear Father. Oh, help us to love, dear Lord, AMEN!
p.s. God, when we fall back into filling our minds with ungodly thoughts toward others, like hatred, or like anything else that does not please you, please lead us swiftly to repentance and help us to carry on learning to walk down the pathway of righteousness you set before us, oh God, AMEN!
“He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.” Psalms 23:3 NKJV
“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalms 139:23-24 KJV