Satan's playground is our mind. He
whispers to us disparaging thoughts, subtle lies and blatant temptations all
day long. Our thoughts influence our emotions and actions. If we entertain
negative thoughts, we reap negative emotions and behavior.
If we dwell on the negative, Satan
wins. When life is a whirlwind of chaos, pain, stress, discouragement and
uphill battles, we can influence the circumstances by changing our focus and
attitude. If we praise God for and in our trails, we are victors and
overcomers.
A happy heart reflects on our face
and in our body language; but when our heart is burdened and heavy, it
threatens to break our spirit (Proverbs 15:13). If we think only about pure, true,
noble, right, lovely, excellent, admirable and praiseworthy concepts, we reap the blessings of positive emotions and
behavior (Philippians 4:8).
We take captive every thought and
make it obedient to Christ alone (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). We encourage our soul
- our thoughts, emotions and choices - with the realization that God plants a
seed for a miracle within every trial. He also uses them to draw us into a more
intimate relationship with Him.
We do not depend on our human
resources to fight the spiritual forces at work to tear us down and influence
us to quit living for the Lord. God gives us divinely powered weapons to demolish
all of Satan’s strongholds (Philippians
2:5).
The imagination is where the devil loves to play. He
perverts the truth and comes up with all sorts of lies to tell us, which unbelievably
we accept as truth. Satan puts a thought there, and then we say,
"Yeah! That's right!"
We dwell on those ideas and believe his lies. Soon, we
believe them as truth, and he sits back and laughs at us. He has us right where
he wants us. The first negative thought in your mind is from Satan. It is his
temptation to see if he can get your attention.
Then, he tries to keep your attention by expounding on
that first negative thought. If you agree with that thought, or if you
entertain that thought and allow him to add other thoughts to it, then he wins
the victory in that battle.
On
the other hand, the Holy Spirit lives in our Born Again spirit, and He helps us
to battle what the Bible calls...the old nature, the carnal nature, the flesh
and the devil. It is a
lifetime process.
If we recognize that the first negative thought ~ the
blasphemous, sexual, carnal, unholy, angry, bitter, resentful or belittling
thought ~ is from Satan, then we can quote or read scripture to him, just like
Jesus did on the mountain after His 40 days of prayer and fasting (Matthew
4:1-11).
Prayer:
Father God, since You raised us
with Christ into newness of life (Romans 6:4), we no longer want to pursue a
sinful lifestyle. As we mature in our walk with You, we only seek those issues
and activities, which come from above, where Jesus sits at Your right hand
(Colossians 3:1). We want to seek first our King Jesus and Your Kingdom, and we
desire to never walk in the flesh (Galatians 5:16).
Remind us that what we believe and
think influences how we act. When we believe Satan's lies, we exhibit negative
attitudes. Help us to understand that if the devil captivates our mind, he will
then have influence over our behavior. You give us a safeguard by encouraging
us to bring our focus and thoughts into obedience to Christ (2 Corinthians
10:3-5).
Thought for the Day:
As we take a continual inventory
of how our body, soul and spirit are feeling, we can toss out any thoughts or
beliefs that do not measure up to God's advice in Philippians 4:8; this way the
peace of God, which has nothing to do with our human understanding, will guard
our body, soul and spirit in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:7
