A Tricky Mind—By Rebecca

Do you ever feel like you truly think one way but thoughts come to your mind that are different than that? Do you ever get stuck in a cycle of thoughts that you know are not healthy for you to continue to think, but they keep coming? Do you ever have thoughts that come to your mind and you wonder—“Where did that come from?” Well, if you experience any of those—you are not alone!

Jeremiah 17:9 reveals to us that “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” and Matthew 15:19-20 says, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person…”

Our heart is “…the unseen part of us – our mind, will, and emotions” John Vandegriff tells us in his book In the Arena of the Mind. Those unruly thoughts that I referenced at the beginning…yep, they come from our deceitful, tricky heart! Our heart that needs renewed and reshaped, remade so that it reflects Christ in our mind, will and emotions.

The heart is not the only thing that leads the tricky mind astray. The devil also knows how to lead us astray through our mind—he’s been studying what gets you and I since the day we were born and he’s been studying human beings since creation.

Our thoughts are extremely impactful on our words, our actions, our interactions and well everything that we do! Proverbs 23:7 says “For as he thinks within himself, so he is” (NASB). In other words “A man is what he thinks about all day long.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson. If you have negative thinking, you have negative reactions…if you have judgmental or critical thinking, you will not treat people the way they should be treated—your actions and interactions will be impacted. If you keep your mind set on finding faults, you will not see the good in others and again your words, your actions and your interactions will all be impacted.

BUT, we have hope to combat the enemy from his deceitful trickery and we have hope to combat our own hearts deceitful trickery!

Joyce Meyer encourages us from her book Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind that “Satan offers wrong thinking to everyone, but we do not have to accept his offer.” We need to work to recognize the enemies lies and throw those out of our mind, don’t let him win! It takes work to throw out these thoughts, work to take our thoughts captive. If we have a thought that is against the way that God would want us to think…then that is the thought that we have to take captive, we have to demolish it and we make it obedient to Christ as described by Paul in 2 Corinthians 10: 3-5 “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (emphasis added) To make it obedient to Christ, we find what the truth is…what does the Bible say about that thought?…that’s where we find the truth on the thought and instead of holding onto the wrong thought we kick it out and replace it with God’s truth. I always picture myself wrinkling up the thought like a piece of paper and throwing it away like the garbage that it is.

This works for lies from Satan as well as the tricky deceit from our own hearts. It’s a process, we work to change the way we think—one thought at a time. Romans 12:2 tells us “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” And Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (emphasis added)

When thoughts are racing and your not sure what the truth is…speak those verses to yourself and speak them out loud to the enemy. And God “will keep (you) in perfect peace (you)those whose minds (is) are steadfast, because (you) they trust in (God) you.” (parenthesis added!) Isaiah 26:3. Seek to change the pattern of your thoughts, don’t just let your thoughts run you—you take control over them with the power of God’s Word!

Don’t be like Bob Wiley on What about Bob:

Bob Wiley: “Well, I get dizzy spells, nausea, cold sweats, hot sweats, fever blisters, difficulty breathing, difficulty swallowing, blurred vision, involuntary trembling, dead hands, numb lips, fingernail sensitivity, pelvic discomfort.

Dr. Leo Marvin: “So the real question is, what is the crisis, Bob? What is it you're truly afraid of?”

Bob Wiley: “What if my heart stops beating? What if I'm looking for a bathroom, I can't find it, and... my bladder explodes?”

Instead take your thoughts captive one thought at a time like Bob Wiley practiced “baby steps get on the bus, baby steps down the aisle, baby steps...” AND then quote Philippians 4:8 as many times as you need to!

What are you going to do this week to work on controlling your thoughts instead of having your thoughts control you?