A thought can come into our mind uninvited and we can’t seem to stop it! (A bit of bad news that isn’t all that bad.) For example: As I walk past the doughnut shop I think, “I’d love a doughnut!” Without this thought being able to enter my mind from outside stimulation it could not tempt me. This is how outside sources tempt us. Thoughts come into our minds uninvited so fast that we can’t do anything about it. We simply find ourselves with a tempting thought. Strecher and Appel pointed this out in 1958. We are made so that thoughts can enter our minds without our approval. These are thoughts we can’t control. We are open to all influences.
To Be Tempted Is Not Sin
It’s not a sin to be tempted to do wrong. But it is a personal failure to give in to that temptation. Let’s illustrate what we mean with what happened to Jesus.
When we remember that Jesus was tempted with enticing thoughts while fasting in the desert, we can see how important it is to realize that having bad thoughts is not where we go wrong. It’s what we do about the unwanted thought that either starts it on the way to becoming an action or stops it in its tracks and makes the mental event a good or bad experience. Jesus responded, “Away with you, Satan!” So, we too must dismiss, banish, the unwanted thought!
We Have Three Options When Tempted
Our options are something like this…
Option Number One: Welcome the Thought.
We can welcome a thought and think about it some more. This has the same effect as accepting a guest into our home. They settle down and make themselves at home. It’s harder to eject them than it was to open the door and let them in.
If we welcome the thought, it is already on its way to becoming something we will act on one day. Whatever our mind welcomes is an agent for changing us. Thoughts are seeds that start germinating the moment we begin appreciating them. Jesus did not use this option when bad thoughts came into his mind. To have the mind of Christ we should not use this option when the thought is a bad thought.
Option Number Two: Reject the Thought.
We can reject the thought and start thinking about something else. This is the opposite of welcoming it. The thought we reject may not leave immediately. However, it feels it is not welcome and will eventually leave if we persist. It will lessen its attempts to get our attention and it will leave.
In this option, the thought has entered our minds (something we can’t stop), but we have not welcomed it into the comfort of our personal home. It is standing in the waiting room and has little influence over us while we refuse to entertain it. Jesus used this option in verse 7 of Matthew 4:1-10, which records the story we are following.
Option Number Three: Transform the Thought.
We can turn it into its opposite. We do this by turning a negative thought into a positive thought. That’s called transformation! For example: I am tempted with the thought to get even with someone who has hurt me. Instead, I change the thought into its opposite. Instead of getting even, I settle for helping them. Then, I win. And they are confused! Jesus used this option in verses 4 and 10.
Two BEST Ways to Deal with Unwanted Thoughts We Can’t Control
- Distraction and disinterest. Start thinking of something else. Show no appreciation for an unwanted thought.
- Transformation. Turn a negative or damaging thought into a positive and healthy one that may or may not include positive actions to reinforce our self-management of our thought life.
We have God’s help, if we trust him.
Our first and most important task in a world-changing mission is to learn how to think straight (and teach straight thinking) and combat the insurgence of crooked thinking in our culture and in our world today. If we become passive victims of this crooked way of thinking, we promote it. If we remain silent, we also give it credence. In Who Am I?, the reader progresses from how we have become “crooked thinkers” to how to break out of this prison of the mind (which is enslaving us) to become instruments of change for a better world by recognizing from where our value as humans is derived. “Build a straight and powerful mind.” ~ Ray W. Lincoln
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