Everyone has terrible thoughts enter their minds at times. I feel confident in writing everyone every day has some terrible thought, or thoughts enter their minds. Their hearts. Wayward thoughts. A lot of times downright awful things.

I know I have and do. I do not know anyone so pure, so holy, so good that they are not in the same place I am. No one except the Lord Jesus Christ who was without sin. But even the Lord asked in prayer if it were the will of His Father, Our Father, God Almighty, to remove the sorrowful cup before Him when the Lord was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Lord Jesus Christ knew what He must face, what do, but for an instant a wayward thought — not a sin as the Lord Jesus Christ was spotless, blameless, and without sin.

Which goes to the heart of having wayward thoughts, bad thoughts, awful things creep into our minds daily.

It’s what we do with them once they arrive.

There are two photos appearing at the opening of these comments and the article below, written by Dr. Joe McKeever. A man holding and reading the Scriptures, and praying hands.

I don’t always have a Bible in my hands when terrible thoughts enter my mind, but I do have the instant and accessible ability to pray. And do you want to know what I do daily when something awful enters my mind, which those things do?

I pray either aloud, or silently, depending on the situation; “Oh Mighty Lord and God remove Satan and his evil whisperings from my heart and mind! Make Satan flee and get behind and away from me in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ! May the Holy Spirit protect me, bring peace, comfort, joy, and calm to my heart and mind!”

And every single time instantly within I experience a palpable — known, felt calm and peace and the thought vanishes. Becomes a vapor that leaves as quickly as it came.

I believe in God the Father.

I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe in the Holy Spirit.

I believe every word contained within the Holy Bible.

I believe in prayer and the power of prayer.

I believe in and trust and pray upon the will of God to be done.

I believe that to those truly renewed, regenerated, transformed, and becoming a new creature upon the confession of sin, upon the genuine belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, upon repentance that when authentic the Holy Spirit indwells each true disciple exactly as the Word of God tells us.

And we ought to trust in, believe in, know, go to in all things at all times the Holy Spirit — the Comforter — at every occasion. No matter when, where, with who, but the why because the Holy Spirit can shield us, comfort us, keep us from sin!

Heinous, awful, dreadful, terrible thoughts are going to enter our minds. For one, because the Evil One, that seething vile Old Dragon the devil works diligently at continually attacking true believers more than he does those he already has enslaved and serving him. The devil works at causing doubts, fears, a troubled heart and mind. Awful thoughts. Wayward thoughts. It is in each person knowing this, realizing when it happens, and then taking the direct, quick, bold response required that makes al the difference from having a terrible thought and having it removed, poof! Gone. Never acted upon. Removed from us so we can move on.

It cannot be God’s will, a God that has no part in evil or sin, to want us to have to wrestle and deal with terrible thoughts, wayward things creeping in and blocking out the light, perhaps growing within us and beginning to consume us if we permit them to.

I believe God’s will is for us to immediately turn to trusting prayer in Him, in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, in the Word of God, and to have any and all terrible things that creep in removed as quickly as they entered.

Pray dear ones. Go to, seek, trust in the Lord. To remove every and any awful thought that might enter in and attempt to linger, to get us to then act — which is where the sin enters in and begins.

I have terrible thoughts every single day. I pray upon rising that I will be kept from sin this day the Good Lord has willed for me to continue in the flesh and blessed me with. Keep me from sin, O, Lord. Keep my heart and mind pure!

And I believe the Lord hears my prayer.

And then later in the day, in the evening, whenever that cunning and vile Old Serpent shows up and imagines he can somehow snare me? Get me to come closer to his side of things? The Lord is there for me. The Lord is always there for me — because I go to Him and He is always there. But I must go to Him daily, continually, without ceasing. Daily. Nightly. In all things. In faith.

And if the thoughts keep coming in? Keep coming back?

Then each time, as many times as it takes pray and ask the Lord to remove them. And if they continue? Then search your heart in the Word of God and find out why. For the answer to every problem and concern can be found within the Word of God.

Have faith and all things are possible. Have faith, truly believe, and live that belief and trust and those terrible thoughts will be removed. Not to say others will not appear. They will. Daily most likely. And this will be our reality — until we no longer are in this fleshly body in which the flesh continually wars with the spirit. But put faith more in spirit than flesh and in victory in faith in Christ and the Word and those terrible things entering in will lessen and vanish.

It works dear ones. It truly works. The Holy Spirit is a Comforter, a Shield, a Protector of the hearts and minds of the true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Do not ever doubt that truth, or stray so far from the Shepherd and His words that you cannot see Him or hear Him…

 

Ken Pullen

Friday, October 2nd, 2020

ACP — A Crooked Path

 

What to Do With Those Wayward Thoughts

 

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

By Dr. Joe McKeever

Reprinted from American Family Association

 

We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).  

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to Thee, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer (Psalm 19:14). 

The thought that flitted through my brain that night scares me to this day.

It had rained heavily the previous day, the kind of West Texas downpour they write books about.  The next morning, very early – 4 am or something – I was leaving the Alto Frio Baptist Campground for a very long drive home (to central Mississippi).  Anyone familiar with that remote retreat facility knows that the main route calls for you to drive down a highway and then cross over to a secondary highway.  Oddly, that crossover is a humble, one-lane road of perhaps half a mile.  Equally odd, the bridge curves as it passes over the small creek.  I made this drive several times that week so I was familiar with it.

So, now, four o’clock in the morning, it is pitch black out there, and as I am about to turn off the first highway and drive the narrow lane over to the main highway, I notice the entire area is flooded.  I mean completely submerged. Assuming the bridge was still there, it would be flooded also.

Can you believe that I pulled off the highway and started to drive that way?  The thought actually hit me that I can do this. That I know where the road is, even though I can’t see it. Suddenly my senses returned.  “What are you doing?  You can’t see the road, it’s all underwater, the water is rushing downstream, and the bridge isn’t even straight! This would be pure suicide.”

I backed out, took the longer route, and drove home with no problem.

Several times since I’ve thought back to that moment when I began driving toward the flooded creek and I break out in a cold sweat.

Never mind that I didn’t do it.  Just having entertained the notion is frightening.

I almost feel guilty about it, as though the thought itself indicates some misalignment of my brain.  In reality, the hour was extremely early and I was not fully awake yet.  But that’s no excuse.

I tell myself I’m not responsible for that completely dumb thought.  After all, I did reject it.  I would not knowingly drive through a flooded street, much less an unfamiliar unpaved area like that.

But it did occur to me.  As though that means I wanted to do it. Sheesh.

I’m rejecting that guilt.

And the point of this is…

Everyone has these errant thoughts from time to time.  If we handle them well and send them on their way, in no way should we feel shame or guilt.

Martin Luther said, “You cannot keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building nests in your hair.”  You thought that line was original with your grandma?  I suspect Luther didn’t make it up either but was quoting something he had heard all his life.  No telling where it originated.  But it’s the solid truth.

Thoughts of all kinds flit through our minds.  We reject the bad ones and go forward.  But we should not feel guilty that they appeared, if only momentarily.  Only had we welcomed them inside and let them entertain us with their juicy (scary!) scenarios should we feel that we have done wrong.

No one should ever rationalize that “Well, it was just a thought and thoughts are harmless.”

They are not harmless.  The thought is the preparation for the act.

Every wrong deed begins with a wrong thought.  And seriously wrong deeds are almost always preceded by a full-scale onslaught of impure thinking, planning, and daydreaming.

A famous crime-fighter once said, “No criminal ever commits a crime without first justifying it in his mind.”

As serious disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we fill our minds with thoughts proper and healthy, godly and edifying.

Whatsoever things are true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things (Philippians 4:8).

This is not a new idea but consistently taught throughout Scripture.

His delight is in the Law of the Lord, and in that Law doth he meditate day and night (Psalm 1:2).

Thy word have I treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against Thee (Psalm 119:11).

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart (Luke 2:19).

Never mind the television commercial that asks, “What’s in your wallet?”  Better to ask, “What’s on your mind” What are you thinking about? What are you dwelling upon?  Where does your mind go to rest when it settles down? What is it feasting upon?

“A man may not be what he thinks he is, but what he thinks, he is.”  –Anonymous and true.

Blessed are the pure in heart (Matthew 5:8).

(This was first posted on Dr. McKeever’s site HERE)