 If you're honest, and I mean truly honest, you as a Christian still have thoughts sometimes that you don't want to have. Hey, small Christians, I want to deal with something that everyone deals with. It's not just you, even if you admit it in public. It's not just you, but everybody has thoughts. Negative thoughts, bad thoughts, even sinful thoughts. I know we're not supposed to have sinful thoughts, but the fact of the matter is we do. Where do they come from? Well, a couple of things. One, sometimes they just come from you. You are a naturally, naturally wicked person. You have a heart that has been changed, but that heart is desperately wicked and sick. But to the point, you have a nature that goes counter and contrary to God. God is working in you, but let's be honest. All of your thoughts are not about the gospel, about rainbows, about puppies, about helping little ladies cross streets. Sometimes your thoughts are selfish. They're sinful. They are retaliatory. My thoughts aren't even helping me with this word. Sometimes you want to retaliate, get revenge. Sometimes you don't like a person. You think of bad things. Sometimes you might do things. You might actually act on these thoughts. The fact of the matter is we all have bad thoughts. And in many cases, they come from you, because you're not as great as you think you are, or that you let on. Secondly, they come from the enemy. Remember what Peter says in 1 Peter, let's go to 1 Peter 5, 8. He says, beware, or be of sober spirit, be on alert. Your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Well, he got this from Jesus, because Jesus said to him, the devil wants to sift you like wheat. So what do you do? Well, you've got to pray. You resist him, as he says in verse 9, resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering are being accomplished by your brother who are in the world. So he's going to keep coming. He is going to keep coming on the tack. And how does he do so? Well, he can't literally pick up your hand, move your legs, turn your head. No, what he does is he's going to just work in the space, work in the space that he's used to with our thoughts. Bring things either by way of someone else saying some things, you hear a song, you see something on TV, you see a billboard, something in the magazines on the internet, or just these whispers, you're praying. Next, you know something happens in your mind. You're thinking of something, I shouldn't be thinking about this while I'm praying. It's going to happen. The question is, what do we do? Again, that's for the people who are actually honest, those who will say, yeah, I've got some bad thoughts sometimes. And sometimes before we go into it, sometimes the thoughts are dark. Sometimes the thoughts are not just you're running the mill dark, but these are extremely dark. I may be suicidal, maybe with the intent of murder, maybe something that is as dark and as negative as can possibly get that can happen. What do you do? Even as a Christian, is there a defense? Well, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10.5, he says, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself, and I'm using the King James version here, against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Now, he's speaking to believers. So clearly, believers are going to have some thoughts that go against God. Paul says, don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to, and don't think that you stand, if you do, you think you stand firm, take heed lest you fall. So how do we take these thoughts into captivity? How do we bring ourselves away from these thoughts and give ourselves good thoughts? Well, the Bible also addresses that. Paul, as a matter of fact, addresses in Philippians 4-8, he says, finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is a good report or repute, if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise dwell on these things, or think on these things, those are the things that you need to be thinking about. Those are the things that you want to focus on, namely, what God has done, what God is doing. Think about the goodness of God. Sometimes you have to actually force yourself to, because there are already these thoughts, and so it'd be natural to keep thinking about these thoughts. It's naturally to think about some past sin and then cause a smile. We all have this, what I call this trophy room, this room that we go into every now and then, open the door and walk in and just kind of reminisce about past sins. We think about this thing. Think about that. What I was doing when I was with these people, with that person, with this man, with this woman, with these friends, sometimes songs might trigger a thought, and then what do we do? We smile. Think about how you had fun and even enjoyed those times. Well, that can end up bringing about more negative thoughts, more simple thoughts. And so you have to do so, and sometimes you have to push yourself to do so, and you do so with the thought, with the frame of mind, that God is the one that can fix it, and you have to have faith in that. Remember, the writer of Hebrews tells us that it is impossible, 11 verse 6, impossible to please him without faith. For he who comes to God must believe that he is God, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him, who digitally seek him. Keep seeking him. Keep moving towards him. That's how you take these thoughts captive. That's how anything that exhausts itself against God, that's how you bring it down. That's how you bring captive any negative thoughts. And again, you've got to have them. Hopefully you have them less and less, and you learn how to bring them under control. And if by chance you need to speak with someone, well, then by all means, we're a body. If there's someone that you need to talk to, speak to, that you can have someone pray with you, well, then fine. But you're going to, at some point in time, have to develop this habit on your own, how to bring these thoughts into captivity. You have to learn how to do that on your own, how to praise God, how to think on him, how to pray, how to just go into his word. Because oftentimes, it can be a little bit more difficult to have these negative thoughts when you're actually in your word. So, I hope these help. The fact of the matter is, you will have these thoughts. You will think negatively. As a matter of fact, we see prophets and apostles having these thoughts. Remember, Paul is the one who said that we even despair of life itself. Suicidal thoughts because things were just bad. And this is Paul. We've seen other prophets who were woe as me. It happens. But this is where you've got to, as they say, encourage yourself. And how do you do so? With the word and watch God through his spirit work in you. Amen.