Do you spend time by yourself, thinking about your life and the world around you? It is sometimes referred to as being “alone with your thoughts”. As I reflected on that saying I began to wonder how often the thoughts we are alone with are genuinely ours. So much of what we think has been influenced by outside sources, and what we think and say has been shaped by them.
Now think back to the last time you were alone and in thought. Were all of your thoughts original? They weren’t. Neither were mine. They were your thoughts in that they were flowing through your brain, but most were influenced by things you have heard or seen. You can have original thoughts from time to time, but everyday life doesn’t function in endless originality. Your thoughts are impacted by the thoughts of others.
Your Thoughts, His Thoughts
There are two prominent views that we encounter that impact how we think about ourselves. God has a definite set of thoughts, or view, in regards to you. So does Satan. Which view you think on will eventually turn into the view you allow to shape your own thoughts. You begin to believe about yourself according to the thoughts you dwell on.
Many of life’s problems are rooted in having the wrong view. That view shapes how you think, speak and act. It also becomes your point of reference for how you view yourself.
Satan Views You As His Prey
Let’s look at how Satan views you. John 10:10 explains his intentions toward you and me:
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
You are someone to steal from, to kill, or to destroy. You are the object of Satan’s hunger to inflict pain and destruction. He desires to take all that you have and leave your life desolate. It is who he is and what he does – it isn’t a mood he goes in and out of. We see his approach in 1 Peter 5:8-9:
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
Satan is an adversary, one who is opposed to everything we are and everything we do. His opposition is not merely in thought, it is actions as well. He walks about “like a roaring lion”. Lion roars are most often for communication. They announce their presence, and claim territory. Beyond that, a lion’s roar has a power behind it that impacts its surroundings. A male lion’s roar can carry up to 5 miles, and the vibrations it generates can be felt several yards away.
Lions prefer to stalk their prey, rushing in and dragging their victim down. Once they have secured their trophy, they systematically feast on it until they devour even the marrow and its associated juices. Little is left of a lion’s catch. Doesn’t that sound like steal, kill and destroy?
When you are looking at life and the many decisions it requires, Satan is working to influence your thoughts. He wants you to see yourself as without value and without hope. Where he leads you portrays a life of no answers to truly free you from your pain and disappointment. There are only diversions to help you deal with it, each with a hefty price to pay.
God Views You As A Treasure
While Satan looks at you as an easy mark to rob, make desolate and devour, you are so much more to Jesus. He spoke of His intentions toward you in John 10:10-11:
I came that they may have life, and that they may have it to the fullest.11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
Where Satan desires to take the life God has to offer from you, Jesus said He wanted you to have that life to the fullest. Desolation versus abundance. Even more, where Satan would take your life from you, Jesus would give His life for you. That’s because He has a much different set of thoughts about you.
I can remember wondering how God could love me in the state I was in. You may wonder that at times as well. It’s so important that you understand this truth:
How God sees and views you is not the same as how he sees and views your condition.
God sees you as a precious creation, desired to be intimately involved with. When he created Adam, he looked and saw his creation and deemed it “very good” (Gen. 1:31)
He walked with Adam in the Garden of Eden and talked with him. The love and desire that God had for man was not diminished. Even after Adam’s fall God still conversed with man, but the presence of sin had changed the relationship greatly.
God saw man’s condition in sin, and knew that the relationship He had created us to have with Him could not exist with sin. Our sin condition was the problem.
God views you as valuable, precious, and desirable to know at a deep level. He saw your fallen, sinful condition separating you from Him. BECAUSE of His love for, you sent his only son Jesus to come and die to REDEEM you from your sinful state, RESTORING you to the place where He could be intimately involved with you as He had intended.
You aren’t worthless in God’s eyes. He didn’t just say you were valuable, Jesus gave His life for you to prove it. The next time you are told you are a failure or that you are worthless, remember ultimately who says that about you and who doesn’t. The devil will always try to get you to identify with the worst of what you are and then define you by it. Jesus looks to have you identify the sin problem you have, and the invites you to walk with Him – where you obtain a new identity in Him. Paul talked of this in 2 Corinthians 5:17:
17 Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Look, all things have become new.
On one hand you have someone who desires to influence you to bring you to destruction, and on the other you have someone who endured pain and suffering, even death, to bring you life. Jesus doesn’t promise us unicorns and rainbows, but He does offer us real peace, love, and a future. Satan creates pain and then offers costly remedies that only lead further down the path of destruction.
So let’s get back to those thoughts. Let them be shaped by what God thinks about you. You’re precious, you’re loved, you have a future and a destiny. You can walk in what He has for you as you walk with Him. Let His thoughts be the ones you get alone with, and watch your life change for the better.
