God's Antivirus
Gregory Tankersley
2010-06-29
God tells us to call on him so that our hearts and minds can be cleansed from the filth that the world has injected into our thought processors.
“Seek the LORD while He may be found; call to Him while He is near. Let the wicked one abandon his way, and the sinful one his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, so He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will freely forgive. ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.’ [This is] the LORD's declaration.
‘For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:6-9)*
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” (Proverbs 14:12)
People will say, “Let your heart be your guide,” and “to thine own self be true,” but what if your heart has been corrupted like a computer might be from too much careless web surfing. Ever had a computer virus ruin your day? Living in the world puts us at risk for many kinds of infectious mind viruses. If we are not careful, up seems down and right appears to be left. I’m not suggesting that we just unplug. We have to interact with our world (John 17:15-16), but we don’t have to fall prey to every evil hacker that is bent on downloading the latest thought virus. Every now and then we have to run a scan on our machines to get out all the bugs. Our minds are the same way. Interaction with the world causes our minds to become infected with useless junk. The devil is a hacker (with a lot of hacker helpers). He wants to debilitate our hearts to the point that we cannot “compute” effectively and he can control the mind’s processing ability. We often need to go to God’s word so that we can identify, isolate and quarantine the harmful thoughts that lead to sinful actions.
A lot of little cranial “cookies” and some mind “malware” in the thought system can really mess up a person’s idea of right and wrong. Many people have experienced what it is like to have a machine get so bugged up that it is almost useless. Our brains can get that way, too.
The best offense is a good defense. In the same way that it is better to keep viruses out of a computer than it is to deal with the consequence of infection, it is better to “firewall” sin than to try to eliminate it after it’s gotten in. Some “links” are so obviously crawling with bugs it’s probably better just to keep a safe distance than it is to risk contamination. Computers have recommended security settings and unless a crashed “heart-drive” is something you desire, you should keep your heart clean by installing God’s antivirus. (1) Load God’s word (2) Run with it. (3) If you experience any difficulty, call on the Lord (“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” Romans 10:13)
“My son, pay attention to my words; listen closely to my sayings. Don't lose sight of them; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and health to one's whole body. Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life” (Proverbs 4:20-23).
*Scripture taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers. All rights reserved.
