Within

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

WITHIN

Prov 15:26

26 The LORD detests the thoughts of the wicked, but those of the pure are pleasing to him.

NIV

This seems rather obvious that God detests wicked things, but this is not about the actions or deeds of wicked people, but it is about the thought life if each and every person whether their deeds are wicked or not. It is quite possible to live a life which appears to be free of wicked deeds, but have thoughts which are hidden deep within that are far from pure. This is the ultimate challenge of life, to keep our thoughts from wondering into places they should not travel. Perhaps we should be far more vigilant about what we send into our minds from our eyes which could be the just the stimulus our thoughts needs in order to make that wondering journey down the dark side. Sometimes those visual temptations are not even of our own making, they just appear magically before us without any warning at all. It is at those times we need to know and understand exactly what there are and avert our attention, ignore and think about God, think about a scripture, think about this proverb turning our thoughts to something pure. We know it is our nature to view that which is pleasing to view, whether that be of a moral, sensual nature or a material self-serving nature they are all bent on creating a form of lust or greed which are all wicked thoughts. It is mostly our eyes, but then even with them closed our eyes can betray our thoughts, as some might endeavor to gossip right into them which travels immediately into our thoughts and somehow once again magically transforms into something wicked. At those times maybe we should review a few simply truths with our speaker. Then again we can be the maker of bad sound as well, with our choose of music, radio stations, or even that combination of sight and sound with our movies, or television. All things in whether they product things out may still product thought which are not pleasing to God so on guard we must be. Surely entertainment is not forbidden, but we should be aware as to what we do with it, within. This is not about outward thing, but about within.