Have you ever found yourself in a mental state of complete disarray? Your thoughts are racing all over the place and you can’t seem to settle down. Your troubles and your worries appear to have joined forces to bring you into a state of confusion. Many people live this way every day. They have become acclimatized to the daily jumble of thoughts, so much so that they no longer are aware that something has gone wrong. Living in a perpetual state of Helter Skelter was not part of the design of your Creator. The reason this happens to us and make no mistake it does happen, is because we are not aware of the competition that goes on day by day for our minds; what we will and will not think about. This competition is the battle of good versus evil and most people are not even aware of its existence. Yet it does exist whether we choose to participate in it or not. Have you been living in a state of turmoil and confusion? Do you feel as if your thoughts are something definitely not under your control? Has your own mind become one of your greatest enemies? Indeed have you been enduring life in a state of Helter Skelter?
I think if you ask most people to define spiritual things, the last thing they would include in spiritual activity would be their thinking. In fairness we haven’t had a lot of instruction concerning the importance of our thinking beyond the familiar admonitions to remain positive. However, there is so much more to it than that. What we think about the most forms the basis of our hearts and our hearts prescribe in detail the type of life we are going to live. Much of what happens to us in our lives come from within that great citadel of the soul called our heart; both good and bad. If your heart has been convinced that you cannot catch a break in life, don’t be surprised that you cannot seem to catch a break. If your heart has been persuaded that money and prosperity exist for other people, you will find yourself lacking many of the things you need to live successfully. Similarly, if your heart has been coaxed into thinking good things are coming your way, then there is an excellent chance of that good appearing. Thinking is a free-will activity that God has given to all human beings. But with that ability to think comes an expectation of control. Failure to control your thinking, usually preceded by a failure to pay attention to your thinking, is what leads to all manner of fears, worries and anxieties concerning your life. The Helter Skelter state of mind does not occur by happenstance, but rather comes about by the free admittance of wrong thoughts. The more you hold onto and consider unreasonable and darkened thoughts, the more out of sorts you will become. It’s not your circumstances and environment, it is you. As such, in order to win in the great fight, you have to learn what and what not to think about.
Controlling your thinking is something you can do. It only seems foreign because it’s not something really taught in any significant detail. Now obviously, you do not decide every thought that pops into your head. That kind of mind control does not exist. Rather, as the Bible says, our task is to take captive every thought. In other words, we take charge of what gets to remain in our thoughts and what gets excluded. The control exists in deciding by your own free will what will stay and what will go! The spiritual competition exists within your own mind in accordance to your thinking. Controlling your thinking is one of the most “spiritual” things you can do. The source of all wrong thought is ultimately evil and as such when held onto and considered begins to work you woe. Conversely, when you hold onto things that are true, things that come from the light, things that have no darkness in them, the result to your soul is always peace and calm. When you are afraid of something, and fear is always wrong, you are holding onto and believing something that is not true. The unrest you feel inside comes from the wrong thoughts, not from the scenario you find yourself confronted with in the moment. You win in the competition by choosing to rigorously exclude the things that are not based on truth and replace those thoughts with things that are true, reliable and trustworthy. You would be surprised if not almost shocked to death to learn how many things float through your mind that have no basis in reality, not according to “facts,” but according to the truth of God’s Word. The longer you and I remain ignorant of this great reality, the longer evil gains a hold on us and steals away the life God would have us to live.
All of us get overwhelmed at times in our lives. All of us, even when instructed otherwise, still entertain thoughts that aren’t true and suffer accordingly. Our opponent is incredibly subtle and sly. It is rarely obvious how our thinking is being assaulted. How many things challenge our minds day by day with thoughts of ill health and disease? In response to this bombardment we end up doing all sorts of things in an effort to preserve our health when the actual one that can preserve our health is God. That’s not to say that we ignore all health related facts, but we do not allow our lives to be controlled by them. Logic alone would inform you that certain folks seem to get certain diseases no matter how they choose to live while others seemingly breaking all the rules, do not. Every time you feel bad about yourself for some mistake you have made and those bad feelings persists beyond a reasonable amount of time, the enemy has gotten involved. When you get to the place that you do not like yourself anymore or can’t see beyond your own humanity and flaws, the enemy has gotten involved. Every thought of fear, worry, undue concern and anxiety come ultimately from evil ever trying to talk you and your heart into believing something that isn’t true, long enough that it will eventually become true (for you). Every reminder of your negative past, things that no longer exist except within the confines of your own mind, comes from the darkness as well as every future threat that gives you stress and unrest. This is the spiritual competition and how you have been living reveals how you have been thinking.
On the other side, the good side, God wants you to fill your mind with things that are true. The Bible says, “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Pretty clear huh? When you have the light of God’s Word in your mind it gets easier and easier to spot the darkness. Some errors and falsehoods we have held onto for so long we can no longer see them. For this we need the help of others at times. God’s Word is powerful and it is the only thing that can defeat our spiritual opponent. It’s a helluva lot more than just trying to be positive. God has given us specific promises we can cleave to that counter the work of our enemy. Often we can defeat the evil schemes simply by refusing to think about certain things. This is an element of the control we can choose to take. Similarly, when people say things like I cannot get my mind to stop thinking certain things or to shut down, it is categorically untrue. What has happened in reality is that the mind in question has been habituated to error. The only way to take back control of your thinking is to do it one thought at a time. Find some promise of God that meets your specific need and dwell on that instead. The idea of completely clearing your mind of all thoughts is some idea a guru told you and is not true either. You don’t want a vacuum, you want an environment you are choosing.
Nobody wants to live their life in a state of Helter Skelter. Though confusion and chaos appear quite prevalent, we can have peace if we really want it. We can have anything we want in this life by choosing to control our thoughts until our hearts have been persuaded of things that are true. God sets no limitations on the kind of life people can live, people do when they fail to think properly and believe things that are based in error. You, my friends, are in the competition whether you like it or not, so you may as well learn how to win. Peace, peace wonderful peace coming down from the Father above…
Just some good thoughts…