Last week, I allowed myself to go onto a rabbit trail that, in retrospect, was not merely an innocent diversionary experience. Like James describes, I was dragged onto this trail by my own evil desire. (James 1:13-15) The details are not important, but I was angry and disappointed about a situation. Instead of taking these thoughts and emotions captive for Christ (II Corinthians 10:5), I mulled them over, brooded about them, and fixed my mind on them. For several days, my mind was exclusively occupied with these thoughts. The result was irritability, sleeplessness, and overall, just being out of sorts. 

It was during my morning devotion time in Revelation that suddenly there was clarity and conviction about what was wrong. The commentator wrote about the martyrs sitting underneath the altar awaiting justice to be given them. He noted that the lives they lived on earth were not highlighted; the focus was rather on the glory of the Lord. Then it hit me like a brick. I had been wholly self-focused and absorbed. The past several days had been about me and me alone. As James notes, it was a rabbit trail meant for harm, even destruction. I confessed then and there of my selfishness and stepped back onto the path that leads to life. 

Almost immediately, there was a lifting of the burden that had been weighing me down. I felt like myself again, the one that the Lord created me to be. The situation, while still somewhat unpleasant, faded into the background and no longer had the emotional power I had willingly given it.

There are reasons the Scriptures tell us, “do not dwell the past,” to “fix our eyes on Jesus,” to take captive every thought and to make it obedient to Christ,““set our minds on things above,” and to think about things that are “true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy.” The human mind is a powerful tool and can be used by God for wonderful things, but also by the devil for terrible things. Think about Mr. Rogers and Adolf Hitler. Both created by God, but very different uses of their minds.

The focus of our minds is a spiritual battleground. If the devil wins the mind, he will, in turn, eventually win our hearts. Thus, he wants to entice us down those rabbit trails of our minds where pride, bitterness, lust, greed, and a multitude of other destructive thoughts lie in wait. As the old saying goes, give him an inch and he’ll take a mile!

I recall a former student with whom my wife and I became close. Though we had loved her in so many ways, she allowed herself thoughts of our ill-will toward her, based on some childhood experiences. She nursed those thoughts, mulled them over until she was finally convinced that we intended her harm rather than good. She cut off all contact with us until several years ago, when we received an email asking us to forgive her. She had allowed the devil to cloud her perspective with lies and bitterness that she had accumulated over her troubled life. 

Social media is another example of this. It can be used for good or ill and most of us are witnesses to both. Yet so many believers allow the ill intent of many of these messages to corrupt their thinking—believing lies, hating perceived enemies, and going down political rabbit holes that obscure the fact that followers of Jesus are, first and foremost, citizens of a different country and aliens in this world. The evidence is everywhere that people are nursing angry and hateful thoughts rather than kind and loving ones, as violence on streets, airplanes, and in stores attest, as well as in many tweets and comments. 

We need to recognize when we are being duped by the Enemy. When our thoughts are not in line with the Scriptures, we are in danger. And he has an ample amount of them to supply us if we are open to accept them. The battle begins the moment an unbiblical thought enters our minds. We are at the proverbial fork in the road. One leads onward down the path of righteousness, the other towards potential harm and destruction. The longer we are on the one, the more difficult it is to get back onto the other one.

© Jim Musser 2021 All Scripture references are from the New International Version, 2011.