Have you ever been asked some tough questions?
Maybe they are odd; maybe I am odd for asking them. Some people just can’t relate.
Here’s one? Are your thoughts exclusively your own?
Who can track this kinda stuff? “Experts” will say that we have thousands of self-messages every day. Psychology Today has article after article about the voice in our head. Romans 7:7-25 addresses this: 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Odd that psychologists and the Apostle Paul seem to agree on the voice, but disagree on the source. That would fall in the category of worldly wisdom vs. the wisdom of God.
See, there I go again - talking about things that make people look at me like I’ve got a booger splattered across my forehead. Sometimes, it’s a lonely conversation. Everyone wants help with their doubts, their fears, their guilt. It springs up in their marriage, workplace, parents, neighbors, kids, addiction, disappointments, diagnoses, uncertain future plans, all that kind of stuff, and then… I ask a weird question.
Why ask?
If you’re like me, I’ve had some pretty dark thoughts in my head; and... made some very confusing choices in my life; which doesn’t seem to mesh because... I’m a believer. I’m a receiver of Jesus Christ, so where do those thoughts come from? Paul nailed it.
Now, I own my choices; they were there at the threshold of my mind, and I chose to act on them. But not every thought I chose to act on, do I believe originated with me. Why do I think that? Not because I’m blame shifting - it’s because it’s been that way from the beginning.
God says to Cain in Genesis 4:7 If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
Notice that sin is a being capable of crouching - and it has an insatiable desire or appetite for us - to devour us “like a roaring lion.” It’s an unholy force - evil.
If we begin to deal with this question, we can deal with the second one. You see, when the conversation turns to spiritual things [1 Corinthians 1, 2, 3] the world and the evil one roars with laughter - “Oh, you’re going to go the Jesus route, eh?” [Ephesians 6:12-18]
And people I’m face to face with are thinking, if not saying, “But, I don’t have a Jesus problem.”
Not many want to talk about the Lord and His solution; however, when I ask, “Do you believe there is a spiritual world?” There is a resounding, “Yes, of course.”
“Well, the Bible would agree with you.”
AWKWARD SILENCE.
I don’t know if I just have a gift of delivering that conversation ending punchline. Funny how it exists, but it’s never the issue. That’s just the stuff of scary movies.
Maybe it’s just that the Bible has so many words that makes it so difficult to lean on. If it just stopped at the coffee mug slogans that would be acceptable and easier.
But not helpful and not honest. There’s no question.
If you want to change things in your life - you have to go to the AUTHOR of Life.