It seems as if during the past year, one serious crisis after another has bombarded my family and close friends. From devastating illness to financial uncertainty to marriages in crisis to the unexpected deaths of loved ones, some days seem just too difficult to bear. As for me personally, satan* has been working overtime to try and hijack my thoughts. He’d like nothing better than to lure me into his dark wasteland where discouragement and despair thrive. And I have to admit, some days, if I’d allowed my mind to wander into satan’s territory, I would have cast faith aside and caved in to utter despair. But because I’ve been walking with the Lord for a long time and know better, and because I am, by faith, trusting God to work out for my good any adversity that comes my way, I understand to the depths of my soul that I can absolutely rely on the promises God declares are mine in His Word. I am assured that God, who cannot lie, will not and cannot break His promises. Moreover, and here’s the extraordinary part, He will bring His promises to pass in my life. How I marvel at the steadfast goodness, strength, and loving-kindness of my God!
Since I first became a Christian, I’ve understood that my mind is a battleground, and that satan would like nothing better than to win the war, build a castle, fly his standard, and declare himself ruler over the realm of my thoughts. But I also know that I can either allow my mind to wander into satan’s negative territory and risk capture and defeat, or I can win the battle (and ultimately the war) by choosing to meditate instead on the positive, life-giving, life-changing things of God. Winning or losing the war will, and always will be, up to me.
It’s easy to “justify” blaming other people who’ve wronged us for our misery. Or we can blame negative occurrences in our past for why we can’t seem to ever walk in victory over our present circumstances. Adversity and past negative events also make perfect excuses for why we may suffer from low self-esteem, why we can’t seem to dig ourselves out of the hole financially, or why “nothing good ever seems to come my way.” The blame game comes naturally to us humans. Some of us even enjoy being victims instead of victors. It’s always easier—for a time—to shirk responsibility for directing our own thoughts down a positive path instead of a negative one. Then, too, sometimes it just feels downright comforting to place blame for our misfortunes on someone else, then sink into a warm mud bath of negativity. But at what cost? Down in that bubbling pit lies utter defeat. Down in that shadowy pool that at first looked so inviting lurk the denizens of destruction and death.
How much better to halt negative thoughts at the onset before they take root, before they in time sprout, mature, and bear their awful fruit. How much better to take our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ, cast down imaginations, (see 2 Corinthians 10:5) and do what Paul instructs us to do in Philippians 4: 8. Paul tells us that when negative thoughts of self-doubt, defeat, self-pity and despair bombard our minds, we need to turn to Jesus and think about all that He is. Paul admonishes us that we can and must control our own thought life and that we must not allow satan to do it for us. All it takes is a conscious effort on our part to wrench back the controls, expose satan for the liar he is, and steer our minds toward Jesus.
Jesus is our peace, our answer. Jesus is noble, just, pure, lovely, virtuous, and praiseworthy. Everything about Jesus garners a good report. When we focus on thoughts such as these, when we plant victory seeds in the gardens of our minds instead of allowing satan’s weeds to thrive, in due time God assures us we can expect an abundant harvest of every good fruit.
*I do not—and never will—give satan the courtesy of capitalizing his name.
This started me thinking about the subject of displacement. Every fourth grader knows about displacement. It’s usually demonstrated by completely filling a cylinder with water and than dropping a rock in. The water that splashes out has been displaced by the rock. Fill a bathtub all the way and hop in and you’ll spend the next ten minutes mopping up the floor. The dimensions of the tub are finite.
Pondering this subject led me to ask myself about spiritual displacement. We live in the world. Our bodily life is governed by finite amounts of energy, time, and attention. Our minds, even for those with far more brainpower than I, can only hold so much. Therefore, we have to make choices on how to allot our time and attention and what to fill our minds with.
Could there be such a thing as spiritual junk food? Of course, spending our time doing something as unwholesome as viewing pornography would be the nutritional equivalent of consuming arsenic – even small doses over time will lead to death.
But what about doing something as culturally accepted as watching or listening to inflammatory TV or radio programs generated from either side of political fence? There is a certain pleasure in having our anger and righteous indignation fanned. It is so comforting to be assured that we are right and all those other people who hold a different position are idiots. If they only could think like me then all would be good. Could filling our time and minds with this stuff be to our spirit what eating trans fat-filled donuts is to the body? One or two occasionally probably won’t hurt anything, but a steady diet could stop our hearts. Paul warns us many times in his letters to steer clear of activities that stir anger. We are instructed to avoid malice and slander (no matter how fun it is).
What about the more commonplace but maybe just as unhealthy practice of constant worry? How much of our day is given to fear and anxiety? Do we fill our minds with carefully constructed scenarios where it all ends badly? Where do we draw the line between having a common-sense plan for the future, and terror that we’ll be living on the streets in our old age?
Anxiety and malevolent media are but two examples of unworthy pursuits. I could on and on. I am as guilty as anyone of spending my time in vacuous activities when I should be at more praiseworthy pastimes. Yet as I grow in Christ, I have more and more come to realize that if I displace scripture reading, prayer, and service to others with any of the number of unwholesome pursuits available, then I have displaced God with worldly things.
I have also learned bad habits can be hard to break. If we have the habit of worry, then our minds will continue the pattern like a wagon wheel falling into a deep rut. Our puny human efforts cannot change our conditioning. Only God can change us. Only He can break us of any of our unhealthy habits, whether it’s watching dreadful TV, eating Cheetos, or fretting. With Jesus, peace, love, joy, and faith replace anger, fear, boredom, and worry--possibly the greatest displacement of all.
