The picnic has turned into a war between man and insectoid.
I hate flies. Can you tell?
There’s something else I hate as much as flies, and it’s very similar to the putrid existence of those foul creepy-crawly-flyaways. It’s those thoughts that buzz in my brain, alighting here and there, touching a spot that I thought I’d forgiven my friend years ago. Or that little arrogant thought that makes me think I’m better than someone else, and even those trashy little thoughts that tell me I’m ugly or fat, or “what the heck do I think I’m doing writing? No one wants to read what I have to say!”
I’ve been a writer for many years now and one thing I’ve seen in these years of writing is that I’m not the only one who has to battle these insidious flies in my brain. It’s especially difficult to exterminate them when I’m tired. When I’m tired, and I start hearing this buzz in my brain, I know it’s time to put whatever I’m working on away and go to bed.
Negative thoughts about me are not the only pests that buzz around in my head. Arrogance that’s just as damaging to me as the negative thoughts I have about me buzz around up there. Thoughts that tempt me to think I’m better than so and so; and then immediately I hear the accusation, "Who am I to set myself up as better than my sister or brother?"
These thoughts don’t just happen when I’m tired. I can be driving along doing errands, and suddenly something hurtful I did in the past pops into my head and the knowledge that my sharp words to one of our sons when they were small hurt them; or something I might have said to my husband was sharper than I intended.
Thankfully there is a way I can annihilate these thoughts, if I would remember to use this tool. Unfortunately I don’t think about it as quickly as I could. This tool the same weapon Jesus used when he was tempted in the wilderness. Satan presented a temptation; Jesus countered it with the Word of God. The story is in Matthew 4:1-11.
One of the greatest tools we have in fighting the enemy is the Bible, also called the Sword of the Spirit. We don’t have to put up with these flies buzzing around in our brain. The insecticide to use is God’s Word.
This is a war. Reading the Bible, you will find just how fierce this fight is, and you also will find how we can best fight these battles. Psalms 144:1 gives us a hint to both the warfare and the weapons we’re to use.
If you know the Word of God, which is alive and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, you can use it as your defense. The enemy will break off the attack, and then come again at a different time. We won't win the war until Jesus returns and banishes the enemy to the bottomless pit. For now we must use all the weapons the Lord has provided us with to defeat the Lord of the Flies.