“Frequent thoughts discover root affections.”

Stephen Charnock, Works, Vol. 5, 461. A discourse on phronein, “to think.”

“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

Romans 12:3

The frequency of your thought is a measure of what you value and how much you love. Want to measure the strength of your faith, ask, “How often do I think of God during the day?” Wonder how strong your love for your spouse (or good friend) is? Answer: “How often during the day do I think of her/him?” Want to know what it is that I value the most in my life? Answer: “What is it that I think about the most during the day?” That will tell you what is most important and what you love the most.

“Frequent thoughts discover root affections.” Your thoughts are not without consequence. It really matters what you think. No one does anything without thought. You think and then you act. What you think about makes you who you are and it determines everything you choose.

If you were asked, “What it is that you love?” You could answer, “This is what I think about the most. This is what I truly love: (and you’d fill in the answer here).”

What you frequently think about, mull over, contemplate, consider, puzzle about, those thoughts tell you what you value and what you love the most in your life. Your frequent thoughts reveal what is most important to you. Your frequent thoughts tell you what your heart loves. You can know how much you love God, people, and things by how frequently you think about them.

There could not be a simpler or more accurate measure of the health or disease of our spiritual life than to look at the frequency with which we think about God.

The world would tell you that you can think about anything and it will have no affect on you. But that is a lie. What you think about the most, is what you love the most. What you think about is what you want. What you think about most often is what you end up doing.

Your frequent thoughts reveal your “root affections.” What you think about reveals your deepest loves. By choosing to think about God and spiritual things (his love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and much more) and to think about the Person of God (his nature and perfections, his works and his redemption), you are, by thinking about God more and more, becoming a person who loves God the most.

No one can give glory to God who does not think of God. No one can live for God if they are not considering what God wants them to do. No one can obey God if they do not think first and frequently about God. Think more about the things of God.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Philippians 4:8

Think about what you think about.