Reading Time 2 mins 30 secs –
You’ve heard the stories and I know you’ve wondered. What makes a person have an affair? Why would someone who was created as a man decide he wants to be a woman? Why are people putting their Bibles down and walking away from church? What causes any person to be willing to do something that they know could destroy their reputation, their family, or their business?
The answer is
deception .
To be deceived means to believe what is false to be true, to be misled, or to be ensnared. We’ve all heard more than a few stories of deception—the woman who found out her husband had another family; the politician who was caught in a web of lies; or the older neighbor couple who got cheated out of thousands of dollars by a contractor.
But did you know that the Bible says that we can deceive ourselves ? I bet you don’t know of anyone sharing those stories.
We can deceive ourselves pretty easily, though, with our thoughts .
See, thoughts are not innocent.
They’re seeds.
They’re pictures.
What you listen to, what you look at, the things you do, and the friends you hang around all produce thoughts—pictures—in your mind whether you realize it or not. When you begin to concentrate on those pictures, they produce desire, and desire can get you into trouble.
In fact, the Bible says that desire
drags us. It produces a plan to
get what it wants and that plan can take you to a place you never thought you’d be.
Don’t get me wrong—that’s a good thing if you’re thinking about good things. Your good desires can drag you to succeed, and to win.
The problem is that your heart can’t tell the difference between a good desire and an evil desire. That’s where you have to get a handle on things, because this is nothing to play with.
It’s life and death.
So what do we do? How do we figure out if we’re deceiving ourselves when deceived people don’t usually even know they’re deceived?
We start by being careful about what we look at, what we listen to, and who we talk to. This is what the Bible calls ‘guarding our hearts.’ Then we make a decision to choose what we’re thinking about.
Yes, you can actually choose what you think about.
No matter what pops into your head, the Bible says that we’re to take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. Plain and simple, your brain does not have the authority to think anything it wants. You can choose what you think about.
So, test every thought you have against God’s will for you. How do you know His will? Read your Bible. Measure everything against what God says. Umpire your thoughts. If they don’t line up with what God says get them out—replace them with a right thought. How do you know what right thought to think? Read your Bible.
This is why I say that memory verses aren’t just for kids; they’re for everyone.
If you memorize some scriptures you’ll have them ready and waiting to replace those negative thoughts.
When you analyze what happens in stories of real change in people’s lives, you’ll almost always find the same scenarios—they made the decision to change their thoughts. They took the time to make a change. They turned the TV off. They started really reading their Bibles. They elevated God’s Word above the other voices in their lives and set their hearts on it.
Are you ready for real change in your life?
Then make a decision to change your thoughts, to change your pictures. Ask yourself—What have I been looking at? What have I been watching? How much time have I spent in the Word of God this week? Who am I listening to? Who is giving me advice? Is it someone that has failed or someone that has walked it out and can show me which way to go? What am I focusing on? What am I thinking?
Ask yourself these questions and you’ll see your future.
© 2024 All Rights Reserved | Gary Keesee Ministries | Privacy Policy