In Stephen Charnock’s book The Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts, Stephen lists 15 ways to guard your thought life and encourage holy thoughts. Below is a brief summary of these 15 exhortations.
Get accustomed to serious meditation every morning.
Pick a morning theme of meditation to a chief companion with you throughout the day. Memorize a key bible verse. Meditate and pray over difficult passages. Listen to a sermon or read a commentary on that passage as you work to help you meditate.
2. Avoid entangling yourself with the world.
We live in the world but we must not live for the world. Let all you do and all you live for be for the kingdom of God and for his glory. Strive to always do good works as you are given opportunity to imitate God who does good works. Strive daily to love others unconditionally as God himself loves unconditionally. Sacrifice for others your own selfish interests as Jesus sacrificed himself for the benefit of others. Strive to imitate God’s image of himself in Christ.
3. Avoid idleness.
Avoid unprofitable imaginations in your heart brought about by idleness and encouraged by media. Keep your mind active on improving your talents, redeeming your time, pursing good works and meditating on whatsoever is true and noble.
4. Awe your hearts with the thoughts of God’s omniscience.
Use the power of your imagination not to indulge in hidden sinful thoughts and meditations but instead direct your thoughts to the throne of heaven, where Christ is. Imagine his throne surrounded by cherubim, imagine his judgment seat, his eyes full love and his eyes full of wrath. Imagine his attributes, his perfect wisdom and knowledge. Fill your heart with fear and awe over his mercy he has extended to those who love him.
5. Keep a constant watch over your heart.
The great business of a Christian is keeping one’s heart. It is a full-time occupation as keeping watch over a young child, who would wander off into harms away if left unattended to follow its own will. So will your heart that never seems to mature, but always wishes to respond in a child-like fashion to wander and to turn over in its hands dangerous items and then always attempt to consume them. Guard your heart as a loving parent with a child and seek to train and discipline in the dangers of this world and the goodness of God’s ways so that it will enjoy the good things in this life and not be damaged and abused by them.
6. Examine your thoughts
Always examine your thoughts and make them obedient to the word of Christ. Watch the ideas and inclinations that rise and attempt to linger in your heart. Do not allow such bad thoughts to entertain you and keep you company, as bad company corrupts good character so do bad thoughts corrupt a man or a woman to lead them astray.
7. Put a check on thoughts at their first appearance.
Once you recognize a bad thought, put it immediately out of your mind as you would put a thief out of your house. Your mind is your house and you must lock its windows and doors to keep predators out. Do not leave the windows and front door of your mind open to anything but guard what you allow to enter your heart through your mind. At first recognition of sin, rebuke the thought with the truth and the dangers you would encounter and the harm you would cause if you listened and obeyed it as you chase it off.
8. Use corrupt thoughts as motivation.
Let the shame and regret of previous sins, stir in you a righteous anger to hate sin and the pain it caused you or you caused others so that the delights and temptations of sin become less appealing to your heart. Meditate on the harm it would cause if you were to give in to it. The pain in your loved ones eyes, the shame you would feel once you are found out and stir up a holy hatred for sin that outweighs any love you once had for it.
9. Continue your resistance.
“In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (Hebrews 12:4) Consider him who endured such hostility towards sinners so that you do not lose heart. Sin will always control and operate in this world, but you do not have to be one of its agents and you can prevent it from the best of your ability and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit not to work through you, so that Christ alone works through you to do and accomplish his will. Resist sin and submit to Christ. Submit to Christ and resist sin.
Join supplication with your opposition.
Always watch and pray as Jesus teaches us so that you are on guard against the deceitfulness of sin and the weakness of your own flesh. Pray continually for the Holy Spirit to reveal and to assist you so that you can stand against the schemes of wicked thoughts, imaginations and temptations that fill the world. Remember Christ has overcome the world and because the one who is in you has overcome the world, he promises that you too can overcome.
Welcome and entertain holy thoughts.
When a holy thought lands on you as Stephen Charnock says receive it a messenger from heaven. Welcome holy thoughts and invite them continually into your mind by reading and meditating daily on the word of God, spending time reading books written by Godly men and women to comfort and encourage you across time and space, invite them into your heart for a holy visit, seek out godly friends for dinner and coffee and enjoy godly conversations and holy thoughts and encouragement. We all seek entertainment but be in guard over what you allow to entertain your heart and how you yourself entertain the hearts of others. Seek to draw others closer to God, not further away.
Encourage holy thought to their natural end.
As you meditate on the ultimate end of sin and the dangers, heartache and harm it would and has caused you and others, meditate on the ultimate end of righteous actions and the good and the benefit you could bring to others through your courage to act out your loving inclinations and holy living. What good would this word do in this time? What good would this small sacrifice do for another in this time in their life? What good would it do for you and your own heart? Doing good does have its own reward in this world and in the world to come by the very design of God, meditate on the natural end of a good thought and allow it to bring you courage to act on it and overcome any fear that sin would try to still you with.
Add new holy thoughts to your reservoir of morning meditations.
Seek to add new holy thoughts to your morning meditations by reading the choicest of devotionals, listening to gifted god-fearing pastors, reading godly blogs and much of the puritans who truly sought to live pure lives and to teach others to do so also. We live in a world where we are blessed with tremendous resources at the tips of our fingers on our computers and on our phones to download free classic Christian books from some of the humblest men and women who walked, some of the greatest god-fearing preachers and teachers in sermon audio libraries, some of great ordinary men and women who write and share their thoughts and encouragement through regular blogging. We are without excuse to fill our hearts with holy thoughts in our morning meditations to strengthen us every day and enjoy the richness of as we would a morning habit of a cup of coffee. Make it a habit to seek holy thoughts in the morning as your spiritual breakfast.
Record the choices thoughts.
Our minds can hold on to very little for very long, write down the choicest thoughts you read from others or that God lays on your heart by utilizing a journal or a notebook. You can reread these passages and quotes in the months and years to come and continue to meditate them and share them. They are rare treasures you pick up on your journey through life, a small rock that you can stick in your pocket and that you can turn over in your hands and in your heart to bring you comfort, encouragement, guidance again and again over the years of your life. In addition, you can share these with others. Start your own collection of your most favorite choices thoughts that have come into your life.
Turn your choices thoughts into prayers.
“As God turns his thoughts of us into promises, so let us turn our thoughts of him into prayers.”
Thank God for the truth that they are made of and that you found them in the right time to encourage you. Pray over these holy thoughts you find and that you record again and again. Make them a part of your daily meditations. Ask God to help you understand them, to communicate them, to help you and those you love to live them out daily.
