Every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

— Genesis 6:5

Wow! The people in those days must have been really, really bad. Look at all those totalizing terms: every, only, all the time. And all of this troubled God deeply.Some people, and even some societies, can go very bad. Notice where it starts—in the thoughts of their hearts. In the story that follows, God sends a flood to destroy everything corrupted by the evil and violence of that time.Today, if the Spirit of Christ is working in us, that should mean we are not at risk of being “only evil all the time,” right? Well, let’s not kid ourselves. We can still be quite bad if we regularly let the thoughts of our hearts yield to evil. Such thoughts will not remove us from the saving power of Christ, but they will allow the devil to use us for evil purposes. Evil thoughts will also set us apart from the will of God and from the good that he has in mind for us.So let’s watch the thoughts of our hearts. We need to monitor them. We need to recognize which thoughts are good and which ones are evil. We need to resist the evil ones.Jesus redeems us from the flood of judgment, but the struggle against evil will continue until he returns. In the Lord’s strength and by the power of his Spirit, we can turn from evil and seek to do what is good.

O God, thank you for redeeming us from absolute destruction. Please continue to help us by renewing our minds in Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.