5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
What a commentary about the inner world of the people of that day! Every time they started thinking about something, their thoughts automatically turned toward evil rather than good. This is exactly what happens with porn users. When their mind ponders intimate things it moves toward ever increasingly nasty things. But this was happening way back before the flood, thousands of years ago. When they thought a thought, it was evil. And that evil penetrated the core of their being, what God calls the heart here in this text. Evil does not sit on the surface of our lives for long. If we entertain it, sin digs deeper and deeper into us. Eventually it reaches the core of our being where it then spreads outward. Once we yield to sin it invades every area of our lives. Jesus used the illustration of yeast and bread. Every corner gets changed by the sin. We might think we have our sin carefully partitioned in our lives, but we are only fooling ourselves. Sin is an invasive, destructive force. The text also says that the evil took over their time. The carefully protected sin took over their lives. At this we might balk. “I can certainly maintain my little sin and not have it take over my life.” Really! How often do you think about that sin, either to keep it secret or prepare for indulging in it? If it happens even once, it is beginning to invade. Do you ever feel anxious about having your sin discovered? If so, it is invading. Do you find yourself praying for forgiveness more than once? It is preventing you from praying in a more effective way. There are needs all around us that we could be preparing ourselves to meet, but instead we are struggling with our sin. But the strength to overcome is found in Jesus’ death and resurrection. The more our thoughts dwell on the Lord’s Word, the less our thoughts will be invaded by sin. The Word pushes sin aside. When every inclination of the thoughts of our hearts are only on the Lord all the time we will be in good shape spiritually. We will be living as God intended us to live from the beginning. This is the goal of our lives, to allow the Lord to be so present in us that our hearts are always moving closer to Him.
The Arnold Journey 