Battlefield of the mind

James 1:13-15
13: Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
14: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15: Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Every sin begins in the mind. When we fall into sin, we cannot blame God for tempting us, because God does not tempt us into sinning. To do so would be to go directly against the flawless nature and holiness of God.

The fact of the matter is we are tempted in our mind, a thought is planted in our mind, but this is not sin. It is when we entertain that thought or temptation and stroke the fire of temptation that we begin to be drawn away by our lust. When lust has conceived, it brings forth sin, and when sin conceived, it brings forth death.

Each time we sin, it has a cause and effect. Sin is caused when we entertain our lusts and the effect of sin is death.

Your mind is like a teabag, full of tea leaves. When a thought or temptation comes, it is like the hot water. When you allow the water to mix too much with the tea bag, the outflow is tea. In the same way, when we play or flirt around with wicked thoughts in our mind, we allow our lusts to grow and blossom, which will eventually lead to sin.

I'll end with a little story taken from Today in the Word, June 19, 1992.

A group of academics and historians has compiled this startling information: Since 3600 B.C., the world has known only 292 years of peace! During this period there have been 14,351 wars large and small, in which 3.64 billion people have been killed. The value of the property destroyed is equal to a golden belt around the world 97.2 miles wide and 33 feet thick. Since 650 B.C., there have also been 1,656 arms races, only 16 of which have not ended in war. The remainder ended in the economic collapse of the countries involved.

On the surface, it seems like there has been much war that has taken place and caused so much tragedies and destruction, but take heed, our minds are the world's bloodiest and fiercest battlegrounds. Every day, we fight a war in our minds. What is the outcome?

Sin and death? Or holiness and life?