Rip Van Winkle, Ethan Frome, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. These are some of my favorite stories. Because I hate nagging. I’m terrified of it.
I’ve never had a ‘honey-do’ list, I think up creative ways to remind my kids to do things, and if I ask a friend for a favor and they forget…well, I just count it as a loss. I’m sure a counselor would have fun with that. But as I caught myself internally complaining (a.k.a. internally nagging), I had an epiphany.
God hears my thoughts, and God is as concerned with inner growth as outward behavior.
Yes, I can leash my tongue and zip my mouth and no one is the wiser. Yes, it brings peace to my relationships to speak thankfulness instead of criticism and to build up instead of tear down. But if my thoughts aren’t submitted to a God who can hear them, then am I really growing?
Some people think the God of the Old Testament was harder or harsher than the God of the New Testament. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Rather than lowering the standards, Jesus made us even more aware of how holy God is. Jesus taught us that we are accountable for our thoughts as well as our actions.
So what happens when we do the right thing with wrong thoughts in our heads? Or submit to each other while grumbling in our hearts? Do we feel justified by our actions while allowing wrong attitudes to stay?
What would a deeper thought submission to Christ look like? Click To TweetHas there been a time in your life when your inner thought life didn’t match up to your outward actions? How did you submit it to God?
Action Step: Read Philippians 2:12-15 & Hebrews 4:12-13
Read original post at the Pierce Point blog.
There are times when our inner thoughts focus on ourselves instead of God. I pray I will focus my thoughts on sharing His love with others. 🙂
I know that is so often true of me. I’ll join you in that prayer!
Keeping our negative thoughts to ourselves may keep the peace in our relationships, but I often find that I don’t have internal peace during those times. It takes some deep intentional work to pursue it. And I totally agree with you that God cares for our inner growth as much as outward behavior because so much of what we do and say stems from our hearts.
That is such a great point, Victoria. It does take deep intentional work. And work is the key word. It isn’t easy, is it?
There’ve been plenty of times I went my own way. Submission is our lifelong quest. I’m not sure we ever “arrive” because there’s always the next thing. Great post! God bless!
So true, Nancy! Every item submitted moves out of the way to reveal the next level that needs conquered.