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Mind, Character, and Personality Volume 1
will be sufficient for every emergency.—
Testimonies for the Church
2:408
(1870).
The Sin of Fantasying—You are responsible to God for your
thoughts. If you indulge in vain imaginations, permitting your mind to
dwell upon impure subjects, you are, in a degree, as guilty before God
as if your thoughts were carried into action. All that prevents the action
is the lack of opportunity.—
Testimonies for the Church 2:561
(1870).
Bring the Thoughts Under Control—You should control your
thoughts. This will not be an easy task; you cannot accomplish it
without close and even severe effort....
Not only does God require you to control your thoughts, but also
your passions and affections. Your salvation depends upon your gov-
erning yourself in these things. Passion and affection are powerful
agents. If misapplied, if set in operation through wrong motives, if
misplaced, they are powerful to accomplish your ruin and leave you
a miserable wreck, without God and without hope.—
Testimonies for
the Church 2:561
(1870).
[235]
Harbored Thoughts Become Habit—Polluted thoughts harbored
become habit, and the soul is scarred and defiled. Once do a wrong
action and a blot is made which nothing can heal but the blood of
Christ; and if the habit is not turned from with firm determination, the
soul is corrupted, and the streams flowing from this defiling fountain
corrupt others.—
Letter 26d, 1887
. (
In Heavenly Places, 197
.)
Thoughts Rightly Controlled—We need to place a high value
upon the right control of our thoughts, for such control prepares the
mind and soul to labor harmoniously for the Master. It is necessary for
our peace and happiness in this life that our thoughts center in Christ.
As a man thinketh, so is he. Our improvement in moral purity depends
on right thinking and right acting....
Evil thoughts destroy the soul. The converting power of God
changes the heart, refining and purifying the thoughts. Unless a deter-
mined effort is made to keep the thoughts centered on Christ, grace
cannot reveal itself in the life. The mind must engage in the spiritual
warfare. Every thought must be brought into captivity to the obedience
of Christ. All the habits must be brought under God’s control.
We need a constant sense of the ennobling power of pure thoughts
and the damaging influence of evil thoughts. Let us place our thoughts
upon holy things. Let them be pure and true, for the only security