Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Wrestling with myself!

Psalm 13:2 (New International Version, ©2010)

2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
   and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
   How long will my enemy triumph over me?



I tried wrestling when I was in junior high. I didn't last long. I just couldn't get past the idea of grabbing someone else's sweaty body and them grabbing mine. I was very uncomfortable with the whole idea. When you add on top of that the "interesting" uniforms, I had a very short career. But, I love watching wrestling. It is such an intense sport. Strength is important. But, Strength without technique can be easily defeated. The regular season for our wrestling team is about to end and the tournament series will begin. It will be intense. All of the training they have gone through, all the strength development, are for this purpose. The real battle is about to begin.

It can be just as intense when I wrestle with my thoughts. I battle with my own thoughts all the time. It doesn't matter how strong I think I am, I can easily be defeated by my own thoughts. Have you ever convinced yourself of something that was just not true? Have you ever gotten overwhelmed by an unreasonable worry? The evil in this world, worry, stress, and my own sinfulness can really drag me down. I can be driven to panic, to depression, to more worry, and more stress, just by my own thoughts. The only way to defeat these thoughts is to constantly spend time with my savior. Like a wrestler needs to develop his technique, I need to develop "skills" to listen to God and not my own sinful, hurtful thoughts. When I don't spend that time with my savior, I can get trapped in sorrow, depression, and darkness. Many times my own thoughts are the real enemy. I can defeat these thoughts through Jesus. But, I can't do it on my own.

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