Ill Intent

"Ill Intent" – Proverbs 6:18 "An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief." The study rests on a single word of the verse —devise: to plan, to contrive, to prepare something deliberately— in order to distinguish the evil thought that is refused from the evil that is fed until it becomes a plan. It is developed with Matthew 15:19, where Jesus teaches that evil conduct begins within, and closed with Proverbs 4:23 and Psalm 51: keep the heart above everything else we protect, because whatever governs the heart ends up directing the life.

I. The Scriptures form us

A. One never finishes learning from the word: it is always open to our eyes, our heart and our spirit.

B. It is good when we teach our flesh to love the Scriptures and be meek toward them, for they are what form us and make us true disciples.

C. All that is known of the earth is vanity: in the end nothing fills.

D. The wise runs after His word and speaks words of wisdom and faith. When faith moves, God's hand moves, and I have not seen the righteous forsaken.

E. The book produces growth, wisdom, knowledge and love, because it corrects, reproves and exhorts us constantly.

F. He who sanctifies himself must sanctify himself more; he who seeks God must seek God more. The world's cunning, its trickery and its passions stain our garment.

G. "Life is not easy, and the existence of the righteous is to do battle. That is what I know of God; I know no other gospel."

II. What ill intent is

A. Ill intent is when a person thinks, speaks and acts. And there is nothing about ourselves that we do not know.

B. The angels write and present to the Father every word of ours, everything that comes out of our mouth.

C. We say "I said it without meaning to": every intent has a reason, and that reason is either to defend oneself or to go on in conduct that destroys the holy life.

D. "That is why I go in constant prayer to God, for the fear it gives me. Because God has only to speak, and it is done."

E. The heart either hardens greatly or it does not harden. It is easier to look at people and criticize them than to love them.

F. One gives oneself away in how one thinks, how one speaks and how one acts.

G. There are conversations one does not have twice: there is an art to sending a message in a small sarcasm, a small quarrel inside a conversation. Her way is to withdraw with much subtlety and step back.

H. Great care must be taken not to harm other people, not to wound them in order to leave them hurt.

I. When one contrives, one wakes up in the same contriving and the whole day unfolds for it. What good can be done on such a day?

J. Those acts thrown like a jab have a reason behind them: there is a score kept in the heart, and someone is sought out to be harmed as much as possible.

K. It is easy to deceive; what we forget are the consequences of deceit. And the earth collects them all.

III. Matthew 15:19 — "out of the heart proceed evil thoughts"

A. Jesus teaches that evil conduct begins first in the interior of the human being.

B. Every evil thought —selfish or quarrelsome— sits at the center. It looks as though it has been put to sleep, and it has not: it is growing, to overflow once it is ripe.

C. There is much in life that ought to be wept over. If we go before God and groan and cry out, God can make another atmosphere; but it is in our hands.

D. Let us not look for whoever will tear us down: let us look for the one who tells us the truth, who says "that is not so; that is your thought, but it is not the truth of God."

E. Before harming someone with words or actions, there was often a thought, a feeling or an intent that was allowed to grow in the heart.

F. People live wholly for themselves, and much of what we do we do to please ourselves, not as a service.

G. How easily we mock another, how easily we make someone look bad in front of the rest. How much of life is broken this way?

H. "You may have a thousand reasons to accuse someone, and they may all be true. But I did not come to judge: I came to the earth to love."

I. Jesus walked with Judas, and called him "friend": they ate together day after day, drank the same water, passed through the same dangers, bore the same stones for one another.

J. When one is able to tell another "you mean nothing to me" — what a tearing thing life is.

K. In the heart there is no room for two or three — and in the heart there ought to be room for millions. The heart has capacity to love and to give.

L. "But I have been greatly wronged." The harm done to us does not affect us: what affects us is how much room we give to what we ought to set aside.

M. When we meet someone, what we want is to show them "I am better off than you." That is not life, but that is how it is lived. And it does not even trouble our conscience; nothing reproves us.

N. "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" is part of the prayer. And do we pray it?

O. The heart here stands for ill intent: the desire to harm, envy, rancor. Holding rancor in the heart is a weight.

P. When you first came to the Lord it was not so: people mattered to you. Why do the wells dry up? They have no water for the traveler in the desert who needs a mouthful to keep walking.

IV. "Deviseth": planning the evil

A. The word means to plan, to contrive, to prepare something deliberately.

B. It speaks not merely of an evil thought arriving, but of feeding it and turning it into a plan to do harm.

C. It is contrived and planned, waiting for the perfect moment. And in the end the one harmed is oneself, because it stays for life, turning and turning.

D. Where we are freed is in saying to the Lord "forgive my debt": there the Holy Spirit begins to reprove — "you did not do that, you did this with that intent."

E. The worst of it is that there is no prayer. The tragedy is that there is no prayer. The anguish is that there is no prayer.

F. "I am not here to punish anyone. I am here because, if I can open your ears, I will reach your heart; and if I reach your heart, tomorrow will be a new dawn."

G. It is easy to live a double life: to live supposedly religious and to live of the world; to come to church when one feels like it, and to take from the message only what one likes.

H. "When I see him, I am going to tell him that" — that is a plan, that is contriving, that is stirring up ill air for someone.

I. What we ought to say is "God keep you, God bless you, how are you?" But we are always finding everyone's fault, or being cutting.

J. Mockery dressed as a joke —"whose shoes are those?", "who cut your hair?"— is ill intent: a way of humiliating, a way of dragging someone down.

K. "Do not grow old mistreating one another, because later you will not be able to stand each other" — and because there are already grandchildren who know that story.

V. The important difference

A. Having an evil thought that we refuse is not the same as devising evil.

B. The thought "I am going to get him and tell him" comes to anyone, because you were offended or wounded. The question is what you do with the thought.

C. "Whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are of good report: think on these things."

D. To devise implies the intent: to think how to harm, how to deceive, how to create trouble by a lie, how to provoke another.

E. There are those who throw a sword the moment you speak to them: they insert words that do not seem evil, only cutting and piercing, and they sink in. And when the conversation ends, one wonders why one feels so bad.

F. What harm is done in secret, how easily we destroy, how comfortable we feel when we manage to destroy a smile or a peace — a peace that may be lost to that person for life.

G. Outward conduct reveals what has been allowed to grow within.

H. To shut oneself off —"I know no one, I want to hear of no one"— is to give worship to the enemy, for what Jesus taught is to love, to do good, to have care and tact, the expression that you love and that you carry a burden.

I. Jesus says "out of the heart," not "out of the mind": what is of the mind is of the moment, but in the heart it is sown, harvested, and deep roots are made. And who pulls them out?

J. Who told you love is pleasant? In love there is pain: it bears all things, it endures all things. That is love, and in it there is wisdom and understanding.

K. We have a whole realm in our lives: the Father on the throne, the Son who went to the cross and cleansed us with His blood, and the Holy Spirit who came to our lives. We have far too much to live in lukewarmness.

VI. Thought, intent, decision, action

A. The thought must be guarded, for many vagrant things come.

B. The intent must be guarded, for we have many and do not know whether they are good or evil. Things are said according to the intent one meant to reach; afterward it looks as if nothing happened, but the intent stayed where you left it.

C. The earth is not foolish: it has lived longer than you and the earth speaks. Its intent is to bear fruit, because it must feed the mortals that we are. And why do we not do our own work?

D. When one decides to love God with all one's strength, the action must follow at once: to pray, to read the word, to hear the preaching.

E. When will you stop loving yourself? You think of yourself first, second and third — and you take the fourth place too. We do not grow: we stay small.

F. "They want a ministry, but they do not want to work. They want recognition, but they are not willing to sacrifice. They want to be named, but there is no weeping and no praying."

VII. Proverbs 4:23 — keep thy heart

A. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."

B. The heart must be guarded more than the mind, because what is in the heart is what rises to the mind. The trouble with the heart is that it keeps things, for there is the life.

C. One does not change the way one speaks because there are things kept in the heart, and one wants to speak of what is there.

D. "I want someone to listen to me." Who is to listen? Cast yourself down to pray, set aside hours with the Lord, and you will see the angels going up and down carrying your actions to the Father.

E. We protect the house, the family, money, reputation and health; but the word teaches there is something needing still more vigilance: our inner being.

F. What most likes to enter the heart is deceit, vanity and everything selfish. And things are kept well hidden there that eat away inside.

G. In the Bible the heart is not only the emotions: it stands for the center of the inner life — thoughts, desires, intents, motives, decisions and will.

H. To keep it is to watch it and protect it: to guard what we allow to enter, to remain and to grow.

I. When envy, rancor, jealousy, bitterness or the desire to harm appears, it must be recognized and not fed; instead, fill the mind with what pleases God.

J. The trouble begins when the heart stops refusing evil and starts planning it. Evil is planned in silence: no one knows.

K. Whatever governs your heart will end up directing your life. And in secret, more harm will be done than you think to someone who does not deserve it — because no one deserves to be harmed.

L. That is why David prayed in Psalm 51: "Create in me a clean heart, O God" — the prayer that belongs alongside Proverbs 4:23.

M. If anything is to grow in there, let it be all that is good, all that is just, all that is kind, all that we ought to forgive.

N. And the message closes with a single task: "Think of someone you feel you have made weep. Do not defend yourself. Only think of it."