Enemy Territory

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your mind (emphasis mine) because of your evil behavior. Colossians 1:21

Speaker and author Joyce Meyer popularized the saying Battlefield of the Mind. Most people daily engage in hand to hand combat, deep in enemy territory, with toxic thinking. “God can never forgive me for what I’ve done.” Has that thought ever crossed your mind? It sounds noble, brutally honest, even religious and it is a lie. The only thing preventing anyone from experiencing God’s forgiveness is their unwillingness to believe and receive it. If we think we don’t deserve a “free pass” we’re absolutely correct. We don’t. That didn’t stop God from doing the unthinkable on our behalf.

Colossians pinpoints the root of our problem. To quote the comic strip Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” It’s all in our heads, we have stinkin’ thinkin'. Either we’re unaware of salvation through Christ’s death and resurrection or we refuse to accept God’s gift based on our behavior. We disqualify ourselves. The truth that God can forgive anything is hard to grasp. Man’s inhumanity to man is often cruel, too over the top to warrant forgiveness; for us yes, for God, no.

Reality is every sin we have or will commit was forgiven before we did it. As far as I know there isn’t anyone alive today who personally witnessed the crucifixion. We weren’t even a thought in anyone’s mind on that day. Every wrong thing we would do on some future date was forgiven then. As far as God’s concerned, we were never His enemy. We didn’t even get the chance to be. Our thinking, however, can make this seem possible.

Endowed with a free will, we’re never forced to believe the truth. Our mindsets either foster a vibrant relationship with God or impede and possibly prevent us from enjoying His friendship. If we’re convinced in our mind that we’re unforgivable, we are. We won’t receive what is freely ours already and continue in the delusion that we’re not good enough.

The decision to think differently is ours alone to make. Salvation really is too good to be true. We aren’t God’s enemies. He isn’t mad at us and we’re already forgiven. Venture into enemy territory and confront the beliefs that block receiving God’s forgiveness and love. Embrace the truth; we are reconciled with God when we receive what Jesus accomplished for us.

Cartoon copyright 1971, Walt Kelly