“We were not made to be pressed, smooshed, squished, rolled, squeezed, and shaped into the image of society. . . . The mastermind behind these attacks? The devil. Satan has one primary aim: to entangle us in a web of unhealthy thoughts. He wants to corrupt, contaminate, and confuse our minds with a false system. . . . When our thinking goes off track, so does our life.”- Max Lucado
“But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”- 2 Corinthians 11:3 (ESV)
As Max Lucado moves on in Chapter 2 of Tame Your Thoughts, he notes that in Romans 12:2 the apostle Paul contrasts two types of people. One type of person society shapes to conform. But the work of God transforms and renews the other.
Certainly, Max observes, culture prompts us to:
- value money over people,
- manipulate truth to fit our desires, and
- place our value in what we wear, drive. own, or achieve.
For example, Pastor Lucado reminds us, remember what Satan did with Judas. Hence, as Jesus and His disciples ate supper, the gospel of John reports that the devil had already put an idea into the mind of Judas. As a result, Max notes, Judas — himself no picture of faith — opened the door of his thoughts to Satan.
In conclusion, Max exhorts:
“Stuck in your head? Ticked off at the world? On edge like DEFCON 1? There is hope! The thoughts that have characterized your past need not characterize the rest of your life. God will move you from worm to butterfly, from clay-like to Christlike. . . .
A new mind is less the result of human effort and more the result of divine intervention. He renews our minds . . . reroutes our thought patterns . . . tweaks our attitudes . . . rewires our synaptic circuitry . . . creates a new way of thinking.”
Today’s question: What Bible verses disentangle you from a web of unhealthy thoughts? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “The battle of the mind”