Satan is placing jealousy in the hearts of those who think someone else has more than they do. The more they are jealous the worse their attitudes and actions become.
When pride dwells in the heart so also does anger! When jealousy is present in the heart there follows angry attitudes and actions that destroy relationships.
When pride jealousy and anger dwell in the heart there is the root of the destruction of relationships.
Nothing that comes to dwell in the mind stays in the mind. Every thought that is pondered ends up becoming an action. This is why God said:
2 Corinthians 10:5
"5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,"
When someone rages irrationally over silly things it is likely they have had many continual angry thoughts dwelling in their mind. No one can rage instantaneously, there must be a thought life that builds over time until finally there is an explosion.
Often these explosions of anger catch people off guard, they leave the hearer stunned with disbelief asking "where did that come from." Nothing of significance happened, nothing bad was going on and all of a sudden there is rage flowing from the mouth that seemed to come from no where.
Satan is in the business of destroying relationships, his main goal is to ruin the relationship between God and us and between others and us. If he can keep us preoccupied putting out brush fires we will never see the raging inferno coming.
There is a solution to all this mess for the born again believer. We can keep our mind focused on truth while resisting the fleshly desire to respond to the ploys of the devil emerging from another person's mouth and actions.
Ephesians 6:12
"12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."
Christ rebuked the devil when Peter had a wrong response. Christ said to the apostles "one of you is a devil" in reference to Judas who was in the room.
Christ knew that the sinful attitudes and actions were not coming from the human beings that he was conversing with, it was the devil who was influencing their thoughts. In the case of Judas there may have been possession, while in Peter there were influencing thoughts.
When we find ourselves saying and doing things in opposition to Christ we can assign the thoughts that caused the words and actions to the devil or our flesh.
The solution for the thoughts that cause attitudes and actions is to trust in Christ. When we have Christ dwelling in us we are able to ignore the evil thoughts, even push them out as we cleanse our minds with the word of God.
Romans 12:2
"2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."
Philippians 4:8
"8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."
The more we dwell on the word of God the uglier the world looks to us. The more we know the principles of God the less we can be drawn into the lies of the devil.
When so many people have a perverted view of truth who are church members, the deeper apostasy grows within the church.
The devil has been very clever in inculcating people into the church who have not been born again, those who have been steeped in psychology, who pervert the principles and doctrines of God in order to keep up with the devolving culture.
When our focus is on the culture rather than Christ we can expect the society in general to be even worse than the apostasy in the church.
The world is in the church now far more than ever before. The end times of apostasy are here, few who say they are Christian have been born again.
2 Timothy 1:7
"7 For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline."
Born again believers do not have to be intimidated by the antics of the pretenders, we can be bold and kind at the same time. They will accuse us of being unkind when we tell the truth because it convicts them of sin. However if we are anchored to the rock the tricks of the devil need not have effect on us.
Proverbs 28:26
"26 He who trusts in his own heart is a fool,
But he who walks wisely will be delivered.:
Those who are "religious" trust in their own hearts. Those who are led by the Holy Spirit trust Christ and all His principles.
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