Chapter 5
Where Did That Come From
These fearful thoughts
often come through TV shows, books, memories, or by something said by another
person.
Since they trouble us we don't want to think about them, so too often we "sweep them under the rug" to get them out of our minds only to have a depressed feeling surface later.
In the Bible we have scriptures telling us how to deal with troubling thoughts. And if we will deal with these in a spiritual way immediately, we will not suffer as we do when we try to ignore these thoughts which trouble us. But it takes a diligence to deal with destructive thoughts.
Since they trouble us we don't want to think about them, so too often we "sweep them under the rug" to get them out of our minds only to have a depressed feeling surface later.
In the Bible we have scriptures telling us how to deal with troubling thoughts. And if we will deal with these in a spiritual way immediately, we will not suffer as we do when we try to ignore these thoughts which trouble us. But it takes a diligence to deal with destructive thoughts.
Where Did That Come From
Destructive
thoughts are usually not humorous … However this one is … A woman who sang at
the church I once attended was a magnificent coloratura soprano.
One day she was driving along the street and came to a stop sign and stopped her car. As she waited at the intersection, a thought came to her:
One day she was driving along the street and came to a stop sign and stopped her car. As she waited at the intersection, a thought came to her:
“Wouldn’t a cigarette taste good right
now?”
She entertained this
thought for a few seconds … and then she shouted aloud:
“No … a cigarette wouldn’t taste good
right now!”
Emogene had never
smoked a cigarette in her life.
Singers
of her level do all things possible to protect their voices.
Where did that thought come
from?
We
really don’t know. It could have come from an advertisement. It
could have come from hearing someone speak of needing a “smoke”. It
probably didn’t come from her own flesh since she had never smoked.
It is a destructive thought.
Jn. 10:10 … Jesus says ...
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Often destructive thoughts come from our own flesh … envy, strife, hatred, trying to be better than others, pride, arrogancy, and various lusts of the flesh and eyes.
Certainly
the devil can send destructive thoughts.
The devil tempted Jesus:
Lk. 4 1 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 Being forty days tempted of the devil.
And
in those days HE did eat nothing: and when they were ended, HE afterward
hungered.
3
And the devil said unto Him, If thou be the Son of God,
command this stone that it be made bread.
4
And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word of God.
5
And the devil, taking HIM up into an high mountain, shewed unto HIM all the
kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the
devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them:
for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. 7 If thou
therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. 8 And Jesus answered and
said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan:for it is written, Thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God, and HIM only shalt thou serve.
9
And he brought HIM to Jerusalem, and set HIM on a pinnacle of the temple, and
said unto HIM, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself
down from hence:10 For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over
thee, to keep thee:11 And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any
time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 12 And Jesus answering said
unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
13
And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from HIM for a season.
Often
the point of our greatest desire will be the entry for the temptation,
especially if we want what others have and we have not been able to get such
for ourselves.
You
can begin to examine:
What do I desire?
If you desire grandchildren and do not have any, likely everywhere you go you will encounter happy looking elderly people with grandchildren.
If
you have overspent and built up credit card bills, you
may find you are thinking about money constantly.
If
you wanted to attend college but did not get to do so, you
may find a strong temptation to pretend to others that you were a college
person.
But
we are of God and not of the world … therefore we have a way of escape … We can
focus on that which God tells us … Things such as the following can help
greatly.
The
disciples of Jesus came to HIM asking:
Teach us to pray …
Jesus
replied:
9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in
heaven, Hallowed be THY name.
10 Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.
Amen.
One
problem is we want our own name to be "hallowed".
Another
problem we have is often our eyes are focused on this present world as if it is
“our kingdom”.
And
we want our own will to be done, just think of how we strive to get our way and
to exalt ourselves on this earth.
Most
of us have daily bread so that doesn’t satisfy us. We aren’t even content
for wanting more and greater.
Do
we really want to forgive that awful person? (It
does help when we come to the understanding that Jesus died for awful people,
of which we, ourselves are one of the awful.)
And
do we really want to be delivered from that evil? (Or
are we trying to look attractive to draw the evil to ourselves and are we
trying to be part of the crowd and approved by the evil doers?)
Much of the problem is a conflict between the way of our flesh and
the way of God. As we grow in God, doing HIS will in the various issues pertaining
to this present life, we find ourselves more comfortable in the spirit as we
live on this earth.
*****
These books are available in Kindle version and paperback from Amazon.com
Type Joan Boney in the Amazon search box to purchase these books
(We
are allowed by Amazon under our publication agreement to post a portion
of each book as a sample. If you would like to have the book, you can
purchase it from Amazon.)
*****