I profoundly desired sharing this post with you hoping the topic might speak to you as much as it does to me. The reason is that we tend sometime to ignore the signals that our heart send to us by smother them instead of dealing with them. The problem is we can repressed those shameful feelings, but they are still there, deep inside us, and they wont go away unless we realize how harmful they can be to us and address them.
Psychologists often underline the common misconception that people have when it comes to thoughts and feelings. According to them feelings are emotional(happy, sad) or physical (tired, hungry) while thoughts are rational, based on beliefs, rules or judgements (bad, good). This seems to make perfectly sens. however if psychologists profess that there is no such thing as bad feelings* (there are just natural feelings that need to be express in a healthy way) the bible is utterly clear on this point.
First, the heart (feelings, the physical aspect here being of less importance) and the thoughts are closely linked and the bible teaches that God will judge both: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” Jeremiah 17: 9-11.
Second, various passages confirm that God sees the heart as the siege of thoughts and what really defines man: “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Prov 23: 7. As it is written in Luke 6:45 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
Now what to think about this evil thought that pops out of nowhere in our mind. My belief is that this thought inspired by the enemy is not ours until we decide to keep it and nurture it in our heart. Rebuke it by the authority of Jesus and it will go away, keep thinking about it and it becomes a sin.
The scripture also refers in various passages to feelings/thoughts of heart as evil: “Why do you think evil in your heart?” Jesus asked in Matt.9: 4. “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts.” Matt.15: 19. “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” can we read in the book of Genesis chapter 6.
At this point we can easily conclude that thought and feeling are not only interconnected but they are the same entity in God’s sight. In the second part of this post I will point out some of those thoughts/feelings and discuss why we must definitely deal with them.
*Dr Carrie L. Forrest, Ph.D.