Christians must stay free of mental traps.

by | Posted April 25th at 5:42am

Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Therefore, all who are mature should think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. (Philippians 3: 13b-15)

Though the Christian knows we have a privilege to allow God to lead us along the path of life, we are often overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information that needs to be essentialized to navigate in this complex world.

For spiritual discernment to function, we need to hear the Spirit of God directing our life at every juncture and submit to His leading of “the still small voice” of conscience and live accordingly (1 Kings 19:11-13). When we are Spirit-led, we can make the right decisions as we align our thoughts and actions with Christian character formation.

There are psychological traps that we must discern. We construct thought patterns formed by habitual thinking that can destroy our lifestyle, deplete energy and waste time. If these mind traps occur at an unconscious level, they remain unknown to us, and the need to renew our mind in many areas may not occur to us.

I have a prayer that I say daily: Lord, save me from destructive mind traps, thoughts, lusts, etc. Let me hear your guidance to more promising thoughts unto prosperous change that I may know and discern your leading — to experience true Spirit-led fellowship and knowledge of your Word in Christian accord with your will.

The apostle Paul counselled us to focus on one thing and strive toward the goal of knowing Christ to live aright giving us hope. We renew our mind in Christ also by detecting what is contrary to His plan for your life: “if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you” (vs. 15 of our text). The Holy Spirit will guide you to discern the right path and show you how to detect thought patterns that can side-track clear, godly thinking.

Mental traps often remain below the level of awareness. We fall into them automatically, without making any conscious decision. The first requirement for getting rid of them is to learn the art of detection.

Antithetical thinking is an important device in constructing sound theology. Similarly, in scientific research, the German mathematician Carl Jacobi was known for his ability to solve hard problems by following a strategy of man muss immer umkehren or, loosely translated, “invert, always invert.” [1] — looking at the opposite of the solution at the same time.

By detecting a spiritual mind trap (the opposite of being free to hear Christ’s Spirit), you can ask the Lord to give you victory. We all encounter these potential weaknesses that humans are prone to, in our character development as we aim to “have this mind which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).

Major opposing distractions, can blindside clear perception and kill good thinking. For example, when I was going to write this article early this morning I read in the New York Times that Greg Allman had just died at age 69. Allman played at the Kitchener Blues Festival a couple of years back. I had bought Live at the Fillmore East in 1970 and enjoyed the songs, particularly Greg’s writing of The Whipping Post and the phrase “Oh Lord, sometimes I feel tied to the whipping post…” Most people can relate. Christian’s lives are not simply joy rides. Naturally, I searched for the song on YouTube and cranked it up on my stereo, while showering.

Each trap is related to another trap. For example, I will note one of the mind traps Dr Andre Kukla, of the U of T, points out: the mind trap of fixation which is what occurred for one whole half of an hour of listening to songs and obsessing about Greg’s death! Finally, I listened to the Spirit and got to work. I moved from the fixation on Greg Allman’s death and his music, to quickly prepare my mind for writing.

Mind traps articulated by Professor Kukla directly oppose Christian living by fogging the mind relating to Paul’s counsel: “if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. (Philippians 3:15) In this case, He used the genius of Kukla [2].

I will note how the mind trap of persistence relates to continued fixation in my illustration. I have increasingly moved away from nostalgia by becoming aware of wasted time reflecting on my unconverted old life.

Detecting Unconscious Persistence versus Conscious Perseverance: I have found that you can detect continued fixation on old themes or projects that have lost their value in life as you seek to allow Christ to renew your mind. With the help of the Spirit I ask the following: Am I persevering for Christ or unconsciously persisting? The difference is that persevering can be good while persisting is usually very wasteful.

We persevere when we steadfastly pursue worthy aims despite the obstacles encountered along the way. If I detect that I am trapped, and realise that I have been persisting, I can stop the behaviour. I can save my creative bandwidth (thought), physical energy, or continual fiscal or time invested in any venture/relationship/goal that has lost its value; or is heading toward a degenerate or an unprofitable ROI metric for Christ or for the good of my fellow man).

This morning I suffered from instantaneous persistence without contentment or progress toward a desired good end of serving God and man. Such persistence can become perpetual which then becomes frankly, delusional.

The psychologist, James Allen wrote an entire essay on King Solomon’s wisdom about how our thinking can shape our life: “as a man thinks so is he” (Proverbs 23:7)

Article posted by Glen R. Jackman, founder of GraceProclaimed.org

Glen has optimized his eldership role to teach the full scope of the New Covenant of Jesus Christ without boundaries.
You can read his testimony.