I tend to be a planner and analytical when I look at things. It serves me well in life, but it’s also an area that the devil uses to attack me. I’ve had to learn over the years about myself and this area, and how to resist him in it.
Many years ago, I was going through a trial and what seemed to be a constant assault on my thoughts, my trust in God, and my peace. My mind was hopping from one scenario to the next of how things might work out – and seldom were the results in my favor. I was doing my best to stay upbeat, but the constant onslaught was beginning to wear me down. I was growing weary.
One afternoon I was at home switching out some laundry when another one of those “what if?” scenarios began to play in my mind. I stood there entertaining this latest episode of “what could go wrong” when I realized I was allowing these new thoughts to assault a simple task of moving the wet clothes from the washer to the dryer and set to dry. I was moving the wet clothes, but my mind was far away in another dire scenario.
Have you had this happen to you – “what if?” scenarios of your situation playing in your mind with seldom a good result? You’re not even dwelling on the thoughts, they just come and before you realize it you are fully engaged in the story they are telling. These thoughts are posing a reality of where your situation could end up. If you dwell on them long enough, they become the expected result to what you are going through. They are thoughts, built one upon the other, that are creating stronghold in your mind about your situation.
That is what was happening to me standing over the washing machine as I was digging out wet socks clinging to the bottom of the washer drum. It was then that the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and I heard these words:
“What If? Is the devil’s playground. Don’t go there.”
With those words I was taken back to my childhood trips to the park. In our small-town park, there was a merry-go-round that I enjoyed playing on. It was round with several large handles and sat low to the ground. As you sat on it and held on to a handle, a parent or friend would grasp a handle and begin to push and propel the merry-go-round. Going round and round on it was merry. I really enjoyed spinning round and round on it as long as it was at a measured speed.
The Bully In The Park
There were times when my friends and I would climb on the ride and start it off ourselves, taking turns getting it up to speed. Our time of happiness would be marred by a bully with a very mischievous look in his eyes walking up to the ride and gleefully beginning to spin it faster and faster and faster.
Before we knew it our nice leisurely time of spinning on the ride was turned into a life-or-death fight to hang on or be flung onto the ground or into the nearest tree. We were second graders who were oblivious to the meaning of centrifugal force, but we surely felt its effects. We were holding on for dear life hoping that the bully would lose interest and leave, at which we would drag our feet on the ground to help stop the runaway merry-go-round.
As I stood there at our washer, I understood what had been happening to me. The thoughts of different scenarios to my problem were enticing me to climb onto the ride prepared for me. Once those thoughts had drawn me into a place of entertaining each new scenario, they would begin to come faster and faster, each a bit more dire and unsolvable than the next. Soon they would begin to become overwhelming, and I would have more and more trouble trying to process how to handle my trial. I would find myself hanging onto the handle for dear life – just like those days on the playground.
I also realized that just like at the playground, there was someone behind all the speed and despair that I was feeling. As my head was spinning round and round, reeling from the thoughts I was being bombarded with, there was an insidious figure out there causing me to spin faster and faster. His delight was in the terror he was causing, and his goal was to get me to let go of the handle and fly off the merry-go-round. This was his place of enjoyment. It was his playground.
“What If?” was indeed the devil’s playground.
How Do You Stop?
The question became “How do I get off this runaway merry-go-round?” Not entertaining those thoughts was the way to not get on it in the first place, but here I was in the middle of an unwanted spin and I wanted it to stop. I thought back to those harrowing experiences on that merry-go-round in the park, and how our screams and pleas to have it stopped only seemed to encourage our nemesis even more. Then I remembered the one cry that seemed to work:
“You better stop. I’m telling my dad on you!”
Not everyone could use that line and have it work. There were kids whose father the bully respected or feared, and they would quit when they were faced with his involvement. The bully knew that the kid meant business, and if the dad got involved it would not go well for him.
That is the same approach that you must take when you find yourself in the playground of “what if?”.
In James chapter 4 we find a key to getting the bully to stop:
7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. NLT
“Humble yourselves before God.” Realize that you can’t fix it on your own, and that you need help – God’s help. Just as kids look to their dad to help them, look to your Heavenly Father to help you. He has the answers to your problems. He IS the answer to your problems. When thoughts of fear and hopelessness come your way, choose to think on who God is and His promises to you. Philippians 4:6-8 provides the pattern to put into action in your life:
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
To get off the merry go round and to stay out of the devil’s playground, place your thoughts on what God says about you and who He says He will be to you. Then when thoughts of hopelessness come, you can maintain your peace because you have hope. It is found in Jesus.
Psalm 91 is a rich passage that describes the love and care God has for those who love and trust Him. We find this promise in verse 14 thru 16:
The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name.
15 When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them.
16 I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation.”
This is where your hope comes from, and why the devil’s playground of “what if” doesn’t have to be your destination.
Thanks for listening, and have a great day!
