Neville Turley

“… fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honourable.”  Philippians 4:8 (GNT)

In the dead of night when we at our most vulnerable, dark thoughts of evil spirits can flood our mind and send cold shivers down our spine.

Jesus once told a strange and frightening parable about an evil spirit that lived in a person.  The spirit left the man to look for a resting place.  When it could find none, it said, ’I will go back to my house.’

On its return it finds the house empty, clean and all tidy. The evil spirit finds seven spirits more evil than itself. It brings them back to also live within the man.  At the end of the day, the poor man was far worse off than he had been before.  (Matthew 12:43-45)

The parable of the return of the evil spirit was a warning to the evil people of his day and a lesson for everyone who wants to improve their life. As we rid ourselves of dark thoughts and negative influences, we must replace them with positive attitudes and actions that bring honour to God. We need to rebuild our lives on sound values and a Spirit-led faith. If we fail to do so we will relapse into our old wrongful ways.

The only way to rid ourselves of bad thoughts and wrongful habits is to acquire godly ones by patterning our life on the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have the promise of Jesus that we will be guided each step of the way. ‘I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you for ever. He is the Spirit who reveals the truth about God.’ (John 14:16-17)

Prayer: Almighty God; Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light that we may rise to life eternal through him who reigns with you, in unity with the Holy Spirit. One God now and for ever. Amen