"What is TRUE?"
This question has the ability to successfully navigate you through your day. Just recently Pastor Jim Cymbala spoke on the subject of "Headshots". He explained that as a police officer, you are trained to shoot for mass...when aiming at a subject, you find the largest area of mass and shoot. Now if you are being trained as a sniper, you no longer aim for mass...you aim for the head. That is exactly what the enemy aims for...our MIND. He wants to take us out. He wants to immobilize us. He finds great joy in tripping us up and tricking us into believing lies. Once we allow the lies to take root in our heart, it's just a matter of time before we begin to believe that those lies are legit.
Ephesians 6:17 (NLT) says, "Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."
There are two very important instructions given to us in this verse.
(1) Put on salvation as your helmet. We have GOT to protect our mind. We cannot just allow any and every thought to gain access into our minds. In NYC (and in a lot of other places too) you cannot just walk up to a residential building and walk in. There are usually two locked doors before you ever gain access into the building. You need to have a key to the building, or you need to know someone who lives in that building so that you can buzz them, tell them who you are, and then they will buzz you in to the building. Especially since the 9/11 attacks, heightened security is all over this City. You cannot just walk into any corporate high rise building and go to whatever floor you want to go to. The first thing you have to do is go to the security desk. They ask for your name, your ID, and who you are expecting to meet with. If you can't supply those things, you will not gain access into the building. All of these policies are in place to ensure the safety of those you are visiting. It's a level of protection.
Since the enemy works essentially like a sniper...he aims for our head; our mind. He intends on injuring us and taking us out completely. He isn't satisfied with a small set back or a temporary hiatus. The enemy want us to be completely and totally useless for God. So, we must be intentional when it comes to protecting our minds. We need to put on our helmet of salvation. We must cover our mind with God's love and saving power.
(2) And take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. As a Christian, it is vital to always have the Word of God in our hearts. There is power in the Word. There are promises and truths that will always trump any lie that the enemy feeds us. Truth is truth...whether we feel it or not. For instance II Corinthians 10:5 says this, "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." This scripture is an excellent reminder that our mind will be bombarded with false thoughts that are planted by the enemy. The enemy has been doing the same thing over and over for thousands of years. All he wants to do is make you feel for one moment that your ways are so much higher and better than God's. He wants us to think that there is so much more joy outside of God's will...that life is more fulfilling when we live for ourselves. Sound a lot like what he did to Eve in the Garden of Eden. The enemy planted the lie in her mind that if she ate of the fruit, she would have the knowledge and understanding equal to God. We all know how that turned out for Eve...not so good. At the moment, it seemed like the right thing to do. It was exhilarating and daring. The consequences of believing the enemy's lie has bled throughout the entire universe. We are all experiencing the effects of a mind that was not properly guarded.
Every day is a battle. Some days I feel so victorious. I start my day with a smile, feeling like I can conquer the world. All it takes is one thought, one negative memory, one hurtful conversation to completely deflate the upward direction of my day. I blindly allow Mr. Negative Thought to enter the gates of my mind. He buzzes up to my apartment and instead of asking who is there, I just hit the buzzer and allow him to come on in. It's very unwise to just let any and every thought in. I know this first hand. I probably think (dwell on the past) more than the average person. I am always re-hashing situations and conversations over and over in my mind. They play on a looped schedule...one right after another. I begin to experience the hurt all over again. It directly affects my mood...the atmosphere of my mind is compromised. Dwelling and meditating on a negative experience opens the door for more lies and more hurts to come flooding in. The enemy just wants us to replay painful situations over and over until we are injured all over again. He wants us to be so consumed with ourselves that no one else exists.
Do you remember the game "Red Rover"? We used to play it all of the time in elementary school. We would link arms with each other, then yell out the little Red Rover chant and announce the name of the person we would like to see try to come over to our side and break through our locked arms. There can be a lot learned by this game...When you lock arms with other believers through prayer, fellowship, encouragement, discipleship, it makes it that much more difficult for the enemy to break through our arms. If it is a strong chain, the enemy will never make it through. It takes more than just one person though. We all need to come together as a force. We need to stop talking about how we should "encourage" other people and actually put it into action. Iron sharpens iron. Friends sharpen friends.
I am in a constant state of being under construction...there are so many things I need to work on. I have walls that need to be demolished and replaced with a strong and sure foundation in the Lord. I have great days, and then not so great days. I will have victory over my thoughts in one part of my day, and in that very same day have what I feel to be a complete failure. I was reminded recently that the process of "renewing your mind" is not an overnight fix. It is a process. I love instant gratification. We live in a world of NOW. When it comes to changing a thought pattern and a state of mind that has been all you have ever known, it is going to take a lot of time. What I do know is that the more I practice checking my thoughts at the door of my mind before granting them access into the very presence of my mind, the stronger I will become. This will require being completely INTENTIONAL. It's not easy, but completely worth it.
Will you join me in this fight against the negative and false thoughts that bombard us every moment of the day? Pray with me...Together we can lock arms and bounce the enemy right off of our arms. We can be like the Geico commercial when Dikembe Mutombo intercepts whatever is being tossed his way and says with laugh and a wagging finger, "NOT IN MY HOUSE, HAHAHA", and hits the object sending it in the opposite direction.
Be encouraged friend. Remember that what the enemy used against us and meant to harm us, God promises to use for GOOD. We just have to let Him! It's a minute by minute process for me right now. I am having to be more aware of my thoughts and quick to bat away any that are untrue and that have the potential to breed negativity. We can do this together. God wants us to live a life of freedom. We just have to take the steps toward freedom. I have started to step out in my quest for real freedom. This is going to consist of facing things in my past that maybe I wished could be forever forgotten, but once these things are brought to light I will then begin to experience the freedom that God wants for me. He desires this freedom in your life too.
