“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable and pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, my [firm, immovable] rock and my Redeemer.” [Psalms 19:14, AMP]
Sound familiar? It should. But is this our reality – are our thoughts acceptable and pleasing? Not always. I think this desire is restated in 51: 10-12
“Create in me a clean heart, O God. And renew a right and steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.”
David knew himself and the things that he did and cried out for cleansing and restoration. I believe we all do this. The New Testament rephrased this slightly differently but still it is the same issue in the New Testament. There are over 25 verses that speak to this from taking off the old man and putting on the new to not being conformed to this world. I think my favorite is in Philippians 4:8
“Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart].”
That’s a lot we CAN think and meditate on! But do we? Let me ask this this question slightly differently – do you ever get in a bad mood? Do you ever get down or depressed? Do you ever get highly frustrated? How about – do you ever get hurt by others. Soooo how do these thoughts fit into the various things that Philippians point out? And don’t give me the lame of excuse that you’re ‘only human’ – of course you are! And in whose image have you been created???? Point is that we really have no justifiable ‘excuse’ to stay in those self harmful places – when we recognize where we are and what we’re thinking (often, poor me… and poor me has been blessed with all the spiritual blessings, etc.)
Just how self satisfying and uplifting are those thoughts? Just how do you grow and mature this way? When we are on a path that’s not strewn with rocks designed to make us stumble or not more like a familiar dense forest that even a machete would have issues with but is smooth and flat – why choose a path that will probably bring more hurt? And yet, too often we do… we prolong the agony.
Are we punishing ourselves? A bit. But we need to resist. Scripture tells us that if we resist the devil, he will flee )James 4:7). But the Lord isn’t going to resist him for us, He’s already defeated him. And then the ‘ah ha’. We are in a spiritual battle but we’ve not put on our armor. Without the WHOLE armor of God, how can we possibly think we can defeat anything? Realization and remembering can lead us to resisting and restoration as long as we act on this.
A great aid in all this is our thought life. What are we thinking on? We know what we should be thinking on that is a positive influence. ‘The mind is the devil’s playground’? Only when we allow him access – and we don’t have to. Plus, he never knows if he’s effective until he sees our behavior. Don’t give him an inch! My remedy is to stop. Then regroup. Begin reciting OUT LOUD so you hear you too and speak the Word into your life, your situation, at your enemy.
*Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world
*NO weapon formed against me will prosper.
*I am more than a conquer AND
*I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
*Resist the devil and he will flee
*The weapons of our warfare are not carnal
*I will abide in Him… and be fruitful[I’m]Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth
I could go on, but those are a good start. Add to them the scriptures you are standing on in and for your life. And after you’ve stated them out loud… do it again and then take the time to pick a couple and ponder on them, meditate and watch your spirit expand and lead you.
