Temple Cleansing Our Minds

Luke 19:45-48 Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” 47 And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him, 48 and were unable to do anything; for all the people were very attentive to hear Him.

Yesterday I had someone reference this passage in a context that I thought of as strange in the topic of conversation we were on. This morning in prayer, the word “unable” was the word that came to me to research in God’s Word. In only two texts in the NKJV, was unable found, and the passage above grabbed my attention with reference to hearing it again. What was God telling me? Jesus showed us righteous anger at the level of sins within the temple’s arena. Jesus was angry at all those buying and selling and doing it unethically. I know I can stand before God at how I run our company, to the best of my ability and not hiding behind Christian banners while perpetrating unethical practices. I am listening to an Alistar Begg sermon series on that topic right now; the outward symbols of Christianity while the inward man struggles……ahhh….that’s it.

I have heard, and know it to be true personally, that the thought life of many Christians and many pastors is their greatest struggle. I know of how Satan comes at me in ways I dare not repeat, of thoughts that are indeed great sins, and how he takes them and produces all types of imagery, all types of fantasy, all types of things that the world proclaims victorious, but they go agains the Word, laws, morals, integrity, and all the Bible teaches us. What if the passage is meant for us, for me, to understand how much Jesus wants to cleanse our temples? 1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. I truly believe that many of us do not grasp such a pillar of Christianity as this that Paul proclaims. Jesus told us; “16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever– 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. (John 14) We have Christ living inside of us; his Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth, yet we grieve him when we allow sin to run rampant in our lives; that sin may be outwardly seen, or inwardly hidden, but He knows it all.

How do we battle and fight these unseen wars? How do we battle these thoughts that we seemingly cannot control? How do we stop, or even just keep them from making forward progress in our minds? Willfully pray against them upon inception, and pick up God’s Word and read. Nothing else needs to be said…….