I had been feeling spiritually dull for a while. I prayed and I prayed but nothing was happening. As time went on I noticed the peace, the joy, and the strength that I had was fading. What was going on, where was I going wrong?

After what seemed like forever the Lord finally revealed to me what was going on. My mind was a mess. I had lost focus of the most important thing, His word. I had allowed daily life along with all the responsibilities and trials to consume my thoughts. I had let my flesh start to rule over my mind again. i had let this world consume me instead of Jesus and the word.

I was having thoughts like, “how am I doing to do this” or “this is too much” instead of “no matter what I can do all things through Jesus.” When I woke up I would think about the trails I would face that day or all the responsibilities I had that day instead of reminding myself that this is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it. I was consuming myself with all that I was doing wrong instead of the rightness that I was because of Jesus. The list goes on and on with the wrong thoughts I was having. As the thoughts became more negative I became more negative and unfruitful. The more that the thoughts consumed me the unhappy I was. The more that the flesh took over the more guilt and shame I bore.

 When God showed me that my mind was the problem He also revealed to me that spiritual warfare comes to those that are progressing in their walk with God because the enemy hates progress. He put on my heart that my battle is not with Him (God) because He still loves and sees me the same as He did the day I called into my heart. My battle is with the evil forces that run rampant in our soul and the world. They work their way into our lives in any way that they secretly can and that often starts with our thoughts. They use the smallest things to gain entry in a way that we do not realize until it has become a problem.

 Because our thoughts dictate everything else about us it is the perfect way for the evil forces to start disrupting our well being and our lives. We may not get good sleep one night therefore we are a little scatter brained or don’t have full mental energy and clarity so the enemy is able to take that opportunity to start our day off on the wrong foot and put negative thoughts in our mind. Because we are not clear headed we do not notice that suddenly we are thinking about what our spouse does that aggravates us and then we have this underlying attitude towards them because of that thought. Next thing we know we are having disagreements or arguments all the time and the unity that we had is separated by bitterness. All that started just because we lacked sleep and the enemy had the opportunity to get into our head. This is just one simple example of how something that seems so small to us and that we would probably not notice but I hope that it gives insight on how the enemy can creep in.

 Paying attention to the thoughts that we have and changing them when they are not in alignment with the truth and the positive is important to our well being. If we are going to experience the life that God intends for us to have we have to keep our mind in check. After the thought comes the feelings from the thought. Then the feelings cause us to act upon them. The action that we take will determine the outcome of the thought. See how it all aligns together for the enemy to be able to disrupt our lives and our well being by just putting a negative or false thought in our head. So pay close attention to the thoughts that pop into your mind. If they are negative or false correct them immediately! If we can beat the battle with the enemy over our thoughts then we can beat him at any other way that tries to attack us.