“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”(Jeremiah 17:9)
A young Christian once wondered why his mind continued to reel off negativism and thoughts of sin he had longed forsaken.
These dark forces for a season would like a movie roll out deadly imagination. It would take every ounce of his focused energy to shun them from overpowering him.
These forces have their roots more in the ongoing anxiety, from so many racy events that have gripped our world, from the pandemic, to mindless violence and economic down turns.
This state of many minds have been made worse coupled with spiraling tension from the lock-downs – Chronic negative thinking, depression; anxieties have run riot in many minds.
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 40 million adults in the U.S. are affected, which is nearly 20 percent of the American population.
This present situation did not take the Bible by surprise. It painted a picture of the terrifying things that would happen and their impact on the mind as the end of this age comes to a close:
“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken”. (Luke 21: 25-26).
The scripture’s narrative of the end-times both literally and figuratively captured our current situation and with this background even the most experienced Christians would have to do more to have a calm and serene mind at all times.
What do we need do to remain calm knowing that fear and anxiety takes us far away from receiving from God and only ensures that our minds are primed to receive negative thoughts from the Devil?
The most important thing to do is to deliberately and constantly subscribe our minds to the word of God. Without the word of God giving our minds directions to right thoughts of truth and assurance no heart can remain too long in stability or holiness.
It is beyond the will power of man to navigate through the current density of negativity and not crack to sin, worry or depression. The world is sick today because the hearts of men lack the liberating faith that comes only from the word of God.
Only the word of God contains the spirit and power of God which is able to preserve the mind against all upheavals constantly assailing us.
Jesus knew this and offered the following prayer to God concerning believers, as He prepared to leave the world, saying : “ Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth”.( John 17:17).
Why should we then take the word of God more seriously at this perilous time? Because the word of God has the sanctifying Grace to clean and restore our faith, protect and preserve our minds from the continual bombardment of negativity around us.
To subscribe to the right channel of victory we have to be deliberate and intensional about soaking our minds in the word of God.
The world and all its host: sin and the devil would always wager on the mind of men whether we like it or not but our victory is predicated by what channel of information our mind regularly subscribe to. The world or the word of God?
Knowing about this battle for the mind of men, Apostle Paul tells believers what to think about: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8).
Winning the battle of the mind is about constantly resisting the lies and the fear the devil feeds our mind with the word of God. The word of God is a defense and a strong “standard “ for waging war.
What does it mean to raise a standard? It means to mobilize the army against the enemy. In the ancient days whenever royal kingdoms went to war they raised a standard which represented who they were and what they stood for.
The book of Isaiah gives us this view saying, “So shall they fear The name of the LORD from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him”. Is 59:19)
When we immerse our mind in the word of God, meditate and also confess those words in prayers, what we are doing is mobilizing the Spirit and power of God against the hordes of the devil who seek to steal our joy by assailing our minds with negativity.
In this present life there would always be disappointments and our hearts could be hard pressed by the negativity in the air, but as we subscribe to the word of God we will continue to build the necessary resilience against fear, sin and anxiety.
The word of God tells us to “Resist the devil,’ and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you’ (James 4:7). ‘Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me’ (Isaiah 27:5).
Reading
Philippians 4:4-13
