DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU THINK

Yesterday while i was tending to some business at a customer service counter, i briefly had an improper thought or two toward a young lady who was serving me.  i quickly repented and asked God to forgive me, and He did.  With His help i regained my focus on Jesus and let Him guide my thoughts, actions and prayers the rest of the day.
 
i was really tired when i got home, and i fell fast asleep as soon as i hit the bed.  Later in the night i had a series of anxiety-ridden dreams, a sign that the enemy was at work.  So i groggily surrendered it all to God and asked Him to show me if i’d left a door open to attack.
 
Later in the night when i was more awake, i was reminded of my sleazy thinking and i repented more adequately.  Then God showed me that those thoughts weren’t really mine; they’d come from a sexually perverse spirit.  That ringed true, because the minute they came to mind i felt disgusted.  i didn’t relish them; i felt defiled by them.  Yet because i’d entertained them i confessed them as sin, since i thought they had originated with me.
 
When i was younger i had lots of similar thoughts, and eagerly indulged them with pornography.  Because i didn’t know Jesus, i was really confused about who i was as a man and who i was as God’s son.  But after i invited Jesus into my heart, i began looking at myself and others through His merciful eyes.  That strengthened me to turn from twisted ways, destroy all the porn and ask our Father to change my heart.  He did, but it wasn’t quick or easy.  Before i found freedom i was assaulted for several months with rapid-fire graphic images.  But God redeemed it by teaching me how to recognize perverse spirits and ward them off before they attacked.
 
Although i won that round, what i’m now realizing, decades later, is that the enemy didn’t give up; he just changed tactics.  When i dead-bolted the front door, he found a back door that was still ajar.  Now he lurks in the shadows, looking for any chance to plant a subtly suggestive thought in my mind, especially when i’m too distracted to notice where it’s coming from.  He has been remarkably effective at getting me to own his thoughts, even though i abhor them.
 
But now God is helping me wise up to what’s really going on.  Although my natural man is still weak, it doesn’t have to be my downfall.  For our battle isn’t really against our flesh, but against dark forces in spiritual realms that oppose the ways of God.  i am pure because i’m covered by Christ’s blood, i am strong because i’m filled with His Spirit and i don’t have to succumb to the enemy or be fooled by his wicked schemes!
 
God has called me to vigilance, but it isn’t what it might seem.  i can unwittingly offer the enemy a foothold if i deny that he’s at work, or if i pay him too much attention.  In godly vigilance i focus on Jesus and take my cues from Him.  That doesn’t necessarily keep the enemy at bay - abiding in Jesus might actually provoke the enemy’s ire - but it prepares me to get behind Jesus and let Him infuse every thought, prayer and action with His powerfully tender heart.
 
I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.  Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.  Matthew 10:16