Formed in the deep recesses of our mind lurks a hard with potential to knock us flat on many levels: mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual. Secret imaginations. There we flirt with relationships and scenarios, real or imagined, with energy to destroy our lives and the lives of those we love. We allow Satan to stroll us down avenues of real estate we neither own nor have business seeking or desiring. In the meantime, ignoring growing weeds in our own landscape; neglecting the tender care needed where we reside. We harbor lengthy narratives, morphing out of the mist of our imagination, promising to rescue us from our problems and difficulties in life. If we just allow ourselves one little nibble of the apple, everything will turn up apple pie a la mode. Oh, the depths of our deceptions, fed to us by the Great Deceiver himself.
We become pros at crafting elaborate, detailed, “what if” fantasies that seem innocent enough, but pull us away from our God-given tasks and relationships and waste hours of productive thought and communion with God. Our hands are not free to raise in praise to our Father when our minds are busy knitting ungodly scenarios “behind our backs”. As if He doesn’t have eyes to see.
A dangerous path to traverse, Satan sees our ability to spin these illusions and lures us into deeper, more dangerous territory. A romance novel’s hero starts looking a lot like a man at the office. The blurred face in our imagination, suddenly replaced with the face of a neighbor. A perceived lack in our spouse, shows up as a strong attribute in a brother in the church.
These temptations do not lie only in the realm of relationships. Perhaps our imaginations reveal cravings for possessions or power. Recognition or wealth. Anything we desire outside of the Kingdom of God is suspect.
Strolling through the rose covered grounds of our imagination, the movie screen unexpectedly rips apart and we stand face to face with real-life temptation; our desires looming large, the pull to sin strong. Forbidden fruit flaunts instant pleasure and gratification, but slowly the poison therein, throws us into a weighty darkness, the bondage wearing raw sores into our flesh.
A progression emerges, identifying the danger. Temptation is the result of being dragged away and enticed by our own desires. Then, “after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown gives birth to death.” (James 1:14-15) What start as innocent, idyllic imaginings, turn into strongholds and battles against sin.
“It is a law of life that, if we think of something often enough, we will come to the stage when we cannot stop thinking about it. Our thoughts will be quite literally in a groove out of which we cannot jolt them.” William Barclay
We learn in Matthew 5:21-30 that “to break God’s commandments inwardly is equivalent to breaking them outwardly”. Hebrews 12:1 bids us to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles”. Entangle indeed: confusing our minds; embroiling our emotions; ensnaring our hearts.
But God. God can break any chains and free us from bondage.
How? Testimony rings of chains broken in an instant and all surrounding scenarios disappear. But more often, hard work on our part, over time, infused with the power of God, frees us of our struggle.
To win the battle:
1. We recognize and confess the problem. We get so comfortable with our thoughts we fail to realize when they have taken a slow turn south. The first step to battling obsessive thoughts is to identify those patterns and confess them to the Lord.
2. We reflect on the real-life outcome. We take our imagination past the taste of the fruit to see the reality of destruction and pain that decision will produce. We let our thoughts ponder the ugliness of the true ramifications of what we thought we wanted.
3. We take “captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Desires in conflict with teachings of scripture are to be stifled, not nourished. We take control of our thoughts and make them submissive to the lordship of Christ, doing the hard work to hold them up to the light of scripture and cast aside any stained with ungodly splotches. As we practice this over and over and over, we find we are changed as our thinking alters. We are transformed by the renewing of our mind. (Romans 12:2) The process of transformation occurs as we allow the mind of Christ in us to overtake us.
4. We follow the instruction in Philippians 4:8. “Whatever is TRUE, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” Fantasies are not true. Imaginations are not real. We must stop entertaining ourselves and extinguish thoughts and longings in our hearts that do not reflect what is right, pure, lovely and admirable; excellent and praiseworthy.
As we practice these disciplines, moment by moment at first, gaining inches of hard fought ground, the bondage lessens, the yearnings and longings fade, our desires are replaced by His (Psalm 37:4). And one day we arise to find the chains at our feet. No longer bound by them, we are free to worship and praise with great thanksgiving for all His physical and spiritual blessings; real and shining treasures, even more valuable as we have fought the good fight to preserve the gifts He has given to us.
We will set our minds on something. Oh, let it be on the things of Christ.
