How Can Intrusive And Sinful Thoughts Be Prevented?

The word “intrusive” implies that we haven’t chosen the thought that pops into our head. How do we deal with the bad thoughts, wicked thoughts, hateful thoughts, covetous thoughts, envious thoughts, lustful thoughts, or other ungodly thoughts that pop into our head? The very nature of those thoughts is that we don’t feel like we have any control over them. You aren’t trying to think about that. It just seemingly pops into your mind. How can you control something that you have no control over?

Here’s the general key. As much as we are able, we need to do what Paul wrote about in 2 Corinthians 10:5 – to take every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ.

It’s very true that we may not have any control over the moment a thought pops into our mind, but we do have control with what we do with it from there. We have the choice to either brush that thought away, forget about it, and decide “I’m going to put my mind on something else,” or to choose to hold on to that thought. I think we all know what this is like, and there are times when the battle seems more severe than other times.

But it’s good to remember that we have a choice. Am I going to choose this thought and embrace it, or am I going to do everything I can to put away this thought to the glory of God? We can develop the habit of steadily and consistently (though not necessarily perfectly) putting away such thoughts and setting our mind on godly things. By doing so, we will find it easier and easier to be less troubled by such intrusive thoughts. We handle the things we can’t control by making the most of what we can control. Steadily, we can see improvement in our daily lives and experience God’s blessing in it.