Satan displaces our good thoughts with foolish and evil ones, and if we let them root, we will begin to think they are our own ideas. We must recognize what our thoughts are telling us and reject the “half truths” that are actually lies. We need to constantly feed our minds with God’s word by reading it, listening to it via Christian music and Christian teaching (radio, pod cast, etc.) When God’s word fills our minds, its truth becomes familiar, so the lies become more obvious. When our thinking aligns with God’s ideas, we can discern Satan’s thought from God’s good thoughts for us. Then we can recognize if a thought is our own or Satan’s. Please join me as I explore more ways to protect our minds from Satan’s lies.
I have written about Satan’s attacks upon our thoughts in past posts, and I share more as God reveals it to me. Sometimes I learn, via a pastor’s wisdom, or from a friend, and at times even from direct revelation by the Holy Spirit in my personal life. For example, a pastor said that we can pray successfully as we connect answered prayer with our obedience. When we have obeyed God, we will see prayers answered for our peace of mind in him, even when our circumstances are painful and difficult. But when we disobey God and instead give in to our flesh, with its self pitying anger and judgment and jealousy, Satan’s ideas will begin to sound like our own. Disobedience clouds our ability to pray well so we may not recognize our flesh and Satan in those bad actions and thoughts.
Our flesh gets angry and wants to treat others harshly as they have treated us. It is hard to follow Jesus’ lead in “turning the other cheek,” (Matt.5:39.) It is so much easier to say, “He deserves a harsh answer,” even though Provs.15:1a says, “A soft answer turns away wrath.” In fact, if we use angry and foolish words in response to a fool, the Scripture warns us in the second half of that verse (1b) “Harsh words make tempers flare.” We will end up feeding our flesh, because Satan planted the bad idea that our harsh critics deserve to be treated harshly as they treated us.
Our spiritual warfare is so “daily” that we may grow weary and careless. I have done this. I might forget the Scriptures I memorized or just recite them by rote and not consider what I am saying (not engage my heart and spirit.) We may get tired or even bored with the spiritual fighting. Then we get hurt, and we hurt others too. One surprising way to overcome this mental and spiritual fatigue is to accept the challenge to pursue joy. As we get to know God better, we can also learn to find Jesus in every day details (Cols. 1:9b-10 “We ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.”).
We can live a life of thanks, recognizing the many good things the Lord gives us. Do we enjoy a hot cup of coffee? We can thank Jesus. Did we sleep in a warm, soft bed? We can thank him each morning. Do we enjoy the smell of a flower? We can thank God. We might go on a journey to see how often we can find something we enjoy and simply thank Jesus for it. This may sound simple, but it is powerful.
When we suspect we believe a lie, we must instantly reject it. We may need to re-read the stories of Jesus’ kindness to others, such as his washing the disciple’s feet. We can savor these stories and recognize ourselves in the recipients’ feet (as if Jesus were washing our feet when he washed the disciples’ feet.) We need to recognize ourselves as one of the people Jesus serves and adores. We can also reinforce these truths by teaching them to our friends and children. It is much harder to give in to our flesh and to Satan’s lies when we feel joyful and thankful.
There is so much more to share, but I also want to discuss the ways some people misrepresent Christ to us, so I will close here. I welcome your ideas, so please share how the Lord has helped you to recognize lies of Satan too. May the Lord bless you this week.