James H. Cagle
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4: 23 KJV).
We think in order to have thoughts. We think in order to have a thought life. We think in order to find a good thought to meditate on. We meditate on it in order to improve our thought life. We meditate on good thoughts to transform our thought life. When we transform our thought life we transform our practical life because the practical life is a by-product of the thought life.
The keeping of the heart, which is the inner man, is the responsibility of the individual. And with responsibility comes accountability. The heart has many capabilities and activities but the one activity that impacts the individual the most is its thinking, for thinking is done in the heart, not in the brain (Mat. 15: 19; Proverbs 23: 7). Our thinking is done by us and therefore has a spiritual source. Thinking is not done by a physical organ with a physical origin.
Controlling, developing, and transforming the thought life is important to the Christian who wants to live a life that’s pleasing to God. Before we can manifest the Lordship of Christ in our practical life, He must be Lord of our thought life. Paul writes and tells us some things we should think about in order to bring all our thoughts into captivity to Christ (Phil. 4:8; 2 Cor. 10: 5).
The practical life that the world sees us live had its beginning in the invisible heart. Life “issues” forth from the heart. The heart “is the place from which the life goes forth.” The heart secretes a thought into the brain and the brain articulates it into the body through the nervous system. Then the body animates it to express the inner man publicly. We choose the life we live by choosing the thought we put forth into action. On judgment day, the heart, the inner man, the actual person is held accountable for the things the body did and not the body itself (2 Cor. 5: 10).
Repentance is called a changed mind, or heart, or way of thinking. If repentance is real in the heart, where no one but God can see, then it will result in a changed life that everyone will see. We cannot think one way and live another without being a hypocrite and our own worst enemy.
