I have another question today, and I thought I would answer that question on video. So let me read the question to you. And it says, “Can the enemy read our thoughts? I’ve heard they can.” So if that is true, why do our minds wander so terribly the moment we try to be still, quiet or meditate?
Wow! And I’m sure that happens to a lot of people. So to start off, probably, I’m a part of the consensus that the enemy cannot read our minds. However, if you consider that the enemy has been here for a really, really long time, that he probably knows human kinds, thoughts, and behaviors pretty well. And not only that, there are a lot of influences. I do believe that no, the enemy does put little messages into our mind. But why do they seem more pronounced when we get still?
Well, they are always there. It’s just we’re distracted by other things, we’re distracted by the TV or conversation or company or music, or our phones. And so, it’s not that they’re not there. It’s just that our attention is in on them. But when we become quiet and still, we really start to hear what we haven’t been paying attention to. And in reality, it can be quite disturbing because really about 90% of our thoughts, our unconscious, to most of us.
They are just playing in the background like a broken record over and over and over and over. And we’re not even listening. But some consciously they are influencing every part of our lives. And as I’ve shared earlier, when we get into a meditation practice, these fears and limiting beliefs and negativity and things that have happened in our past that we burry, that we put under the rug, those things begin to trickle up to the surface.
And they can create a lot of anxiety. And so, we use our meditation practice, number one, to become aware of what’s really going on inside of us. Coz we don’t really know a lot of times coz we’re so distracted. So as we become still, these things come up. It’s really the reality of what’s going on in our hearts and in our minds. And that’s a good thing because there has to be awareness before there can be changed. If we don’t know something’s there or something needs to be fixed then we’re not going to try to fix it.
So we use our meditation practice to become aware of the condition of our hearts and our minds. And then we can begin to use tools to help us to change, modify, release, let go of our stinking thinking. And in the meditation itself, using it as a discipline and noticing when our minds are wandering off, kind of doing their negative cycle. We bring our attention back to our meditation anchor, which would be a Scripture, it can be sacred work. It could even be our breath.
So we notice the thoughts, but we notice them with gentle attachment. We don’t create the thought. We just see it. Sometimes, I’ll tell people that if let’s say you’re looking outside the window and you see leaves falling down the tree. So one thought you might have, one meaning you might have is oh well, it’s so beautiful. The leaves are coming down. Well, another person might see those leaves coming down and they might think, oh crap, I’m gonna have to go out and rake all these leaves this weekend.
But if we apply the principle of meditation we just notice the leaves. We don’t ascribe a good meaning. We don’t ascribe of what we might consider a negative meaning. We just notice them. And that’s what we do with our thoughts in meditation. We just notice that. And as we continue with the regular practice, we’re able to detach from them so that they take us over so readily. We can notice that we create a space between ourselves and those thoughts.
So instead of just immediately reacting to the first thing that pops in our head or we have a thought I’m depressed, we have a thought I’m angry, we have a thought no one likes me, we have a thought I’m never going to get ahead, we have just all of these different kinds of thoughts. We kind of just notice them. And like, I’m having a thought that I’m depressed. Well, because we created that space and we can see it now, you can say, I don’t choose to be depressed. That’s not me. I won’t buy in that thought in the name of Jesus. I stopped that thought in the name of Jesus.
We are not our thoughts. The fact that we can notice our thoughts and interpret them, lets us know that there is some space between us in our thoughts. So the whole goal is to really purify our hearts and our minds from all that contaminate our body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. And when we do that and that does take some time. But when we do that and we start to clean that stuff out, we can sit in peace without being bombarded because there’s nothing to come up. There’s nothing in there.
And then we will notice when we cultivate a space of inner peace, then we can immediately notice when something’s throwing us off. Because we can feel the distinction, we can see the distinction very, very quickly. And we can choose a different way of thinking and a different way of being. And so that is why when we become quite and still, our minds wander and we have these negative thoughts because our minds are not disciplined. And our meditation practice, one of the goals is to help us to train and bring discipline to the mind.
So I hope that really helps. If you want to learn more about the mind, which I think so back is so fascinating, please check out my 4 part video course on It’s All In Your Mind: Is Your Mind Sabotaging Your Relationship with God. You will really learn a lot about your mind when you watch that course.
If you want to start a meditation practice with purpose the easy way, check out my new book, at thechristianmeditator.com. It’s on Amazon. And it will take you step by step in daily practices and preps on creating a Christian meditation practice and a transformative morning routine. And I will leave a link in the description.
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So I hope that answered your question about the wandering mind when we get by it. All right. Have a great day! If you have a question for me just email me or put it below. If you like this video, please like it and share it.
