Which comes First?

I came across the following quote:

"Day by day we should weigh  what we have granted to the spirit of the world against what we have denied  to the spirit of Jesus, in thought and especially in deed." Albert  Schweitzer.

Which produced the question; "which  one comes first the thought, or the deeds?" To answer this question,  lets take a look a couple of scriptures.

"Keep your heart with all  vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life" Proverbs 4:23, ESV

"The good person out of the  good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his  evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his  mouth speaks." Luke 6:45, ESV

The famous sermon on the mount  is another great example of the importance of the heart's attitude. Most  of this sermon deals with sin and the attitudes of the heart. The actions  that are mentioned take a level secondary importance. Jesus equates anger  to murder, lust to adultery. So I would conclude that I agree  with Mr. Schweitzer when he says that we should reflect on how much we  sow onto the sinful nature and how much we sow onto the spirit (Galatians  6:8). However, I would disagree with the concluding statement that we should  pay more attention to deeds than thoughts. I would say that we need to  pay more attention to the attitudes of our hearts, and the deeds will follow  naturally out of that.

The most important things, as a  Christian, is my relationship with God, my intimacy with Him, being "a  man after God's own heart." Once my heart is close to Jesus, actions  will follow. If you don't agree, what do you think Jesus what trying to  say in this instance?

"Now as they went on their  way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into  her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet  and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving.  And she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister  has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord  answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about  many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion,  which will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:38:42, ESV