There’s an enemy of ours that is more debilitating than the most crippling disease or violent criminal and it is your own mind. In our mind we can concoct all sorts of scenarios that will never come to fruition. In our mind we can imagine the worst of things, rather than the best. In our mind we can trick ourselves into believing lies and half-truths. There is a saying: “An idle mind is the devil’s playground.” While that may be very true, frankly, he can have a field day even in an occupied mind. It all depends on what you are occupying your mind with. Without sound biblical footing we can be swayed rather easily toward thinking what we would normally never entertain. Without biblical footing we can become tossed about mentally by every errant thought that enters our mind. We are not alone in this, for in Romans Paul speaks of being easily swayed to do that which he ought not do.
Romans 7:14-25 explains Paul’s dilemma: “So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So, I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So, you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.”
Don’t submit to the devil’s tricks. Feed your mind with the food of God’s word regularly to keep strong in the face of trials. Do not succumb to that which is not from God. He loves you and wants to use you. Allow yourself to be used by God. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing.
Richard Keller
Bread of Life Ministries
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