Battle for the Mind

"Man [male-female] is obviously made for thinking.
Therein lies all his dignity and his merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought.
Now the order of thought is to begin with ourselves, and with our author and our end". (Blaise Pascal)

There is a battle going on for our minds. I guess you knew that.
'Do not eat the bread of a miser, Nor desire his delicacies; For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, But his heart is not with you'. (Proverbs 23:6-7 NKJV)

“As he thinks in his heart, so is he.” It is important to take some control of your thinking process. Runaway thinking can end up anywhere. We very easily begin thinking in patterns of unbelief – just conforming to this world. It is dead-end thinking - since Christ is Risen! Thinking is a titanic battle. But, it is always “in grace”.

Knowing and trusting God means having a new mindset. The evil world system – “selfish self-preservation” – is actually passing away. No longer distrustful of God, no longer bitter at the world, and no longer facing a bleak future, we are to live in joyful hope, amidst all the difficulties. We are to “put to death whatever in you is earthly”, not to put on a goody moral appearance, but because there is now a new way of thinking and living, namely - “in Christ”.

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. … Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry)… … You have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self…… Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness …love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
(Colossians 3:1-3, 5, 9, 14)

O Father, thank you for a new mindset – full of hope in Christ; we pray that your grace, will ever sustain us in this battle.

How to Relate to Evil

The following is a part of an article, by John Piper, 2007. I have taken his work, and made it accessible here. The work can be found at 'Desiring God' Ministries.

How then should we relate to evil?

Eight things to do with evil. Four things never to do.

1. Expect evil. “Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12).
2. Endure evil. “Love bears all thing, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7; cf. Mark 13:13).
3. Give thanks for the refining effect of evil that comes against you. “Give thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20; cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:18; Romans 5:3-5).
4. Hate evil. “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” (Romans 12:9).
5. Pray for escape from evil. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13).
6. Expose evil. “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Ephesians 5:11).
7. Overcome evil with good. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).
8. Resist evil. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

But, on the other hand:

1. Never despair that this evil world is out of God’s control. “[He] works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).
2. Never give in to the sense that because of random evil life is absurd and meaningless. “How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! . . . For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever” (Romans 11:33, 36).
3. Never yield to the thought that God sins, or is ever unjust or unrighteous in the way he governs the universe. “The Lord is righteous in all his ways.” (Psalm 145:17).
4. Never doubt that God is totally for you in Christ. If you trust him with your life, you are in Christ. Never doubt that all the evil that befalls you—even if it takes your life—is God’s loving, purifying, saving, fatherly discipline. It is not an expression of his punishment in wrath. That fell on Jesus Christ our substitute. “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12:6).
When we renounce the designs of the devil and trust the power and wisdom and goodness of God through Christ, we fulfill God’s purpose in letting Satan live. We glorify the infinitely superior worth of Jesus.

... thanks to John Piper for these points.
I trust they will encourage you also.