This is the fifth article about understanding the process of our thinking and reason and now I would like to shift gears into the action we should be engaged in regarding dealing with evil. How and why we think makes all the difference in how and why we should act. From my experience, most Christians don’t have a good thinking and reasoning process engaged in their lives and thus bounce from one idea and sermon to another. Our soul was meant and designed by God to function on our acquired knowledge, experience and wisdom in order to have a successful life. But what happens when we fail to follow through with an actionable lifestyle based on these God-given principles? That is what we will be dealing with in the next few articles. 

In this series I have been dealing with how we think about truth and evil and why it matters so much. In part three on this subject we discussed the apostle Paul’s challenge in Romans 12 to not let the world conform our thinking but rather let God renew our minds with the truth of His Word. Granted, this is easier said than done, but the alternative is to become over run with destructive thoughts that ruin our lives.

In my first article on this subject we were looking at how many have considered evil a battle we can’t win and often people resign themselves to just try to avoid it as best they can. This is the lie that comes from Satan to persuade us to give up before we try. I used as an illustration the Star Wars saga and the battle of what seems to be weak rebels and the mighty corrupt empire. In real life we are confronted by many forms of evil from telling simple lies to out-and-out brutality. Evil is a fact but doesn’t have to win the day. God made us with the ability to not only challenge evil but also to win over it. According to the apostle Paul that’s called a “Good Fight”. If you haven read that first article please do so before reading this second installment on this subject.

I read two articles recently about two very different Christian leaders. Both are high-profile men who speak to thousands of people daily yet they are so different in both their personal lives and their weaknesses. They both have learned to live with these weakness, one by covering it up and the other by confessing and leveraging it. They both are respected throughout the body of Christ and you would recognize their names. They are responsible for thousands of people in ministries as well as millions of dollars worth of assets. Now, I’m not so impressed with people who have such influence until I discover what’s going on behind the scenes and whether their ministry and personal lives are honest reflections of themselves as genuine followers of Christ.

I witness to many Christians trying to live a life of faith in a lopsided way by just learning more and more information about God without actually changing how they live. When I became a true believer I knew I had to change not just my thinking but the way I was living my life. Now, 45+ years later, I am still in the same place…..learning and engaging in the changes that Christ compels me to.

Everyone loves to hear a good story. The problem is we don’t think our stories are that good. I have talked to people all around the world and found that we all have the same problem. Unless you’re an extrovert, people struggle with sharing Christ! The truth is, even extroverts struggle with sharing their faith. Why? Because deep down we all know we are flawed. We have problems in life. We don’t have it all together and never will and this intimidates us.

The Thanksgiving holiday has come and gone and I hope it brought joy to your family.  I wonder, though, if we are more full of turkey or more full of realizing how blessed we are to know God as our Heavenly Father and Jesus our Savior? The freedoms we enjoy living with in America are amazing but our consumer culture always seems to leave us wanting more.  If we are more thankful, shouldn’t we consider reaching out to people with the love of God these next few weeks before Christmas? If God loves the whole world as the book of John 3:16 states, shouldn’t we have a deep concern for the world that Christ died for?

When I was a young boy I dreamed and played “Army” with my friends. As young boys we played such games because we had heroes with character traits that we admired. John Wayne was one of the people that we looked up to as a “man’s man”. He portrayed courage in the face of fear and valor when the battle was raging.

As we approach the holiday celebrations of Thanksgiving and Christmas, I thought it would be healthy to remind myself and others about just how important it is to cultivate a thankful heart.  I can certainly get wrapped up in the spiritual war that is going on in our country. I constantly need to be reminded of the words of the apostle Paul when he states clearly that we don’t just wrestle with natural things, like politics and general nastiness, but we wrestle with all the evil and wickedness of a Satanic agenda. That agenda is eradicating the peace of God and promoting hatred and distrust.  That can not happen.  A spirit of thankfulness is what will miraculously bring forth growth and victory!

As we approach the holiday season of Thanksgiving and Christmas, it is very easy to get caught up in the busyness that comes with this time of year. It is easy to lose focus and fail to be really thankful for all of the blessings that God has brought into our lives. Ironically, we can become ungrateful due to all the preparations and responsibilities that the holidays can bring.