Under the Mosaic Law, Israel was instructed to love their God with all their heart (center of a person), soul (emotions), strength, and what goes through their minds – Luke 10:27. Israel failed this, but God will make a new covenant with them in which He will put His law in their thoughts, not just in the mind, but in what goes through the mind, Hebrews 8:10; 10:16).
For Christians, before salvation we walked according to the age of this world system following the desires of the flesh and of all that went through our minds and were by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). This produced a hostility within the thoughts towards God (Colossians 1:21). Now we are not to walk as the unsaved in the futility of the mind with our thoughts darkened (Ephesians 4:18) for God has manifested the light of the knowledge of Christ in our hearts (2 Corinthians 4:6). Because the Son of God has come, the thoughts going through our mind can know Him and therefore know the truth (1 John 5:20).
So then let us gird up our thoughts, keep a clear mind, and completely hope upon the grace to come at the appearance of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:13). Hope is always based upon a promise. The promises we have from God impact our everyday life. We are His children (1 John 3:2). We are of the light (Ephesians 5:8). We are free from slavery to the sin nature (Romans 6:14). We are overcomers in Christ so when Satan tries to manipulate us, we are to stand in Christ against him (1 Peter 5:9). We are in the world, but we are not out from the world and therefore are to use it but not abuse it (1 Corinthians 7:31).
Understanding our thought life is very important. There are many different areas that try to influence our thoughts, especially with the world system. Remember, it is designed to keep the unsaved pacified by the desires of the flesh and eyes and the pride of biological life. Along with it, our sin nature and Satan also seek to impact our thoughts so that we work out their desires, which if we do them will result in sin. Therefore, it is important to have our minds framed on the things above, so we are seeing things as they truly are. This frame of mind then puts boundaries around what we allow to go through our mind; therefore, when a thought comes into our mind that does not fit into who we are in Christ, we identify its source and apply the proper defense against it, rejecting it so it will not influence our actions. This takes practice, so the more we do it the better we become at identifying desires from the Spirit in contrast to those from the flesh, Satan, or the world system. As part of our salvation, we are now able to think the thoughts of God; therefore, let us take those thoughts and work them out so that we are always acting right and doing what pleases God by using what He has given to us in Christ, while rejecting all others.
