Devotion I read today

Many of us struggle with constant thoughts of worthlessness, discontentment, resentment, or fear. Those kinds of thoughts are merely temptation from our enemy - he is tempting us to believe lies about ourselves, others, or our King. Martin Luther once wrote, “You can’t stop the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.” We may not be able to keep the thoughts from entering our mind, but we can keep them from staying in our mind—by kicking them out the moment they arrive! Giving in to those thoughts and allowing them to linger in our head allows them to take root inside our heart and begin to control our life. Remember that protecting our inner sanctuary is not just a defensive action; it is offensive as well. And one of the best offensive moves we can make is to set up a guard station at the entrance of our mind. Instead of passively allowing any and all random thoughts to saunter right on in and hang out for as long as they want, we must actively begin chasing away any thought that is not a reflection of Jesus Christ.

One of the most effective of weapons against wayward thoughts is prayer. I’m not talking about just praying defensively, asking our God to give us strength to flee from temptation. I’m also talking about praying offensively, asking that Jesus Christ, in His amazing heroic strength and power, would wreak havoc on the enemy of our soul. There is nothing Satan hates more than seeing a lost sinner come to know Jesus Christ. When our enemy is attacking us, one of the very best ways to hit him below the belt is to pray specifically for an unsaved person in our life to discover Jesus Christ.

Identify the areas of your life where you are most vulnerable to temptation. Do you struggle with depression? Do you have a weakness in the area of sexual temptation? Whenever Satan tries to pounce on our vulnerable areas, we can use that opportunity to hit him back by praying for the salvation of someone in our life that is in need of Jesus Christ. It is important that we develop this technique as a habit in our life, rather than just a one-time attempt. When our enemy sees the consistency with which we use this tactic, he will back off in a hurry, and we just might get to see another life eternally changed in the process!