I must admit something. There are times when a negative issue seems out of my control in my mind and thoughts of doom and dread fill my thinking, that I begin rehearsing negative outcomes. Perhaps this is enhanced in me because for the years I spent as a cop, I survived by imagining potentially dangerous scenarios and creating a plan to survive.
Now, years after police work, as I imagine certain dreadful outcomes, I try to create a battle plan of human reasoning to combat the conflict. That plan has never worked, but I still attempt that failed tactic from time to time. The battles that take place in our minds, without considering the intervention of the Lord, are a waste of time. They create a way of thinking that does not reflect a trust in God.
After telling his readers that spiritual warfare is not a battle fought by the tactics of natural warfare or with the weapons of human reasoning, Paul said, “We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ” (II Corinthians 10:5). That verse gives us an assignment to teach our minds to obey a higher calling – a calling sourced in the victory of Christ, not our fears.
Paul also wrote, “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8). That instruction makes no sense to someone who thinks they are responsible for making things right.
To be honest, I don’t always want to do this when I am facing a problematic issue. I want to raise all my concerns and try to think through the various outcomes to find a victory created by the limitations of my fearful thinking. This devolves my warfare to become an ongoing rehearsal fueled by doom to fight my imagined enemy inside the limitations of my worried and fearful mind. The problem I have discovered in the process is my lack of trust in God. It reveals a way of thinking that does not reflect a mind at rest.
When God has the wheel of our emotions and we choose to follow His truth, something unthinkable will happen when thoughts of doom and dread have overcome our lives, “They will pass safely through the sea of distress” (Zechariah 10:11).
That verse was referring to Israel as they prepared to cross the Red Sea while the Egyptians were overtaking them. To think the Israelites were without thoughts of doom is not realistic. Everything changed when the waters parted, and an unimagined path of deliverance appeared before them. What was causing their thoughts of doom and dread became a celebration of God’s intervening power.
Every spiritual battle is a test of our trust in God. To have that kind of trust will open a path through our problems in ways we could not imagine when our minds were filled with thoughts of impending doom. Our trust in God and a mind at rest is where our victory resides.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Garris Elkins
Featured Image by Joe from Pixabay
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