Words by our Priest-in-Charge:
Primary Battlefield
Some of us know that the greatest battle or tussle that the devil seeks to win happens in our mind. If he can weaken and defeat us in our mind and our belief system, he succeeds in taking control of our lives and drive us away from God’s will into destruction. The following devotional notes adopted from Shirley Weaver Ministries is very enlightening.
Thoughts Equal Belief
Anytime I ponder or dwell on something over a period of time I obviously believe what I am considering has merit; but if those thoughts contradict faith, I risk the contradiction and follow through on choices – some lifelong, some irreversible — that undermine personal faith and dishonor God.
Along with the logical flow of those choices and all they bring to bear upon my life, their impact produces a composite mental image – things I think about and probably meditate on – until eventually the image is powerful enough to change what I believe.
Some people feel justified – even entitled – to present contradictions of God’s Word as truth; they overlook snares associated with the contradiction to believe truth can be anything they want it to be, even a result of their own obsessive thoughts – whew!
God can change all that – He wants to deliver us. By His Spirit, He helps sever those connections. The Lord’s deliverance shines light on thoughts that run amuck; He brings light to wrong thoughts practiced over time then extends grace to come clean about the sympathy we had for the very thing(s) God would cut off.
Thoughts become beliefs that determine the “way or direction” we’ll go. It’s critical to govern those – to discipline thoughts we allow “in”, those that honor God and satisfy our longing for peace: “Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:8-9