Secret Thoughts

"Do not curse the king, even in your thoughts, and do not curse the rich in the room where you lie, for the bird of the heavens will take away his voice, and those who have wings will divulge the words." Ecclesiastes 10. 20

We all agree that a doubtful word, let alone a malicious act, constitutes a sin before God. But are we not often more indulgent as to the evil thoughts which are born in us, for example, with respect to others ? It is sufficient, it seems to us, not to formulate them aloud so that it is not a fault. Perhaps we even think that our spiritual state is good because we leave nothing to appear from the judgment we bear internally on our brother or our sister.

Well ! Let us remember : God discerns perfectly the evil thought that we let grow in our mind and that we are ready to cultivate ! The Holy Spirit does not fail to alert us on this subject, our conscience also, when it is sensitive. Sin begins when we refuse to pay attention to these voices.

Today's verse warns us in a symbolic way. Do not formulate inwardly, he tells us, murmurs against God, or evil thoughts about your neighbor. Even in the privacy of a bedroom, what happens there, the thoughts you let grow there are carried to the sky like a bird that knows neither obstacles nor borders.

Let us watch over our evil thoughts to stop them and not let them take on a scale that would become guilty before God. Let us also consider that if our mind is occupied by such thoughts, we first lose contact with God, and then we are in great danger one day or another of "disclosing the words." From the abundance of our heart we would then speak in a manner which would not be to the glory of God. Our evil thoughts have the faculty of furnishing themselves with wings !

My natural character may lead me to have more than one other critical thoughts about my surroundings. This is one more reason to ask the Lord to be "transformed by the renewal of my understanding" (Rom 12: 2).

Source (To pleasing the Lord)