As Christians we hear talk of joy and freedom, but where is it? Why is life so hard?

We've got impressive, timesaving computers and gadgets, yet we are over-stressed because there aren't enough hours in the day to do everything we want. Houses are getting larger, but the size of the family is smaller, not only smaller, but increasingly fractured and broken. This is a picture of a people in bondage. Bondage is the opposite of freedom.

Freedom, according to Americans, means I do what it takes to make me happy. I am independent, self-reliant and self-indulgent. A couple won two tickets to Hawaii. The woman was ecstatic, "I get to go to Hawaii twice!" This is not true freedom. One who is in bondage suffers captivity of some sort. Not literal chains or bars, but in beliefs and behavior. We cannot spend day after day in this world without it affecting our minds, our hearts, and our souls.

They become unguarded. Our hearts start to shift away from God. And the ironic thing is the harder we work to become free, the more freedom we seem to lose. Most often we aren't even aware this is happening. We go about our business believing all is well, but deep down inside something feels wrong.

David cried to God, "How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?" (Ps. 13:2, my emphasis). His soul is conflicted. A major portion of understanding how our past influences the present is becoming aware of the three major influences in our lives and then learning how to resist them. Toxic thinking is influenced by three different, but related, ways: through the world, directly through Satan and his demons, and through our own flesh.

These negative influences commonly work together to lead people away from God, negatively affecting our beliefs, thinking, and behavior. These are our conflict zones.

Secular usually means "belonging to this age or this world." Worldliness, or secularism, is a worldview or lifestyle oriented toward the irreligious rather than the sacred, towards the natural rather than supernatural. It is the ungodly aspects of our culture, peer pressure, values, traditions, what is in, what is uncool, customs, philosophies and attitudes.

Secularism is guilty of having "exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator" (Rom. 1:25). The world, as presented in John 1:1-18, is all that is opposed to the Word, Jesus Christ. John wrote, "the whole world is under the control of the evil one" (1 John 5:19). These influences contribute to the breakdown of the family, chemical addiction, pornography, and often trigger abuse.

We often use the word world interchangeably with the word culture. Culture is sometimes used to define the fine arts, but it is best understood as the total pattern of a people's behavior that is learned and grows out of certain ideas or assumptions that we also call a worldly or worldview. It is in this sense that this word is used in this book.

Jesus describes Satan as the "prince of the world" (John 12:31). One of Satan's strategies is to conform believers to worldliness disabling their call to be ambassadors for Jesus. He is winning. Too many Christians are not all that different from the world. It's been said that many people are willing to be God-centered as long as God is man-centered.

Although believers are told not to be conformed to this world (Rom. 12:2) we nonetheless are influenced by it. Most Christians live in two different worlds: the one on Sunday morning and the one that includes rest of the week. In practice, both worlds clash. Our disposition, temperament and habits are manipulated through the workplace, media and entertainment industries, advertising, the education system, peer groups; world views and philosophies. No doubt our minds are more at risk now than ever.

If we follow the world's ways, we miss God's blessings. Jesus's disciple John said, "Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father" (1 John 2:15, Msg). The Apostle James speaks out against befriending the world because to "be a friend of the world is to become an enemy of God" (James 4:4).

Most of us know the story of Noah and the ark (Gen. 5-9). Noah lived in perhaps the most wicked age in history. No one worshipped God. Instead, they worshipped idols and pursued their own sinful pleasures. These people were so wicked that God planned the most complete and drastic act of judgment recorded in Scripture.

Every temptation imaginable was abundantly available to Noah. Nevertheless, Noah did not follow the crowd. I'm sure there were times when he wondered if it was really worth the work of living righteously when no one else did. The day came when his sons had to choose whether they would follow their father. They had to choose whether to believe those around them or trust what Dad said. They chose to join their father.

We can empathize with Noah as we look around our country. We are surrounded by temptation and evil. What will we choose? We often forget our lives have a profound influence on other people-our spouses, family, coworkers, and friends. It is hard to live a righteous life, but we can find assurance in the life of Noah. God will help us fight evil and temptation because he wants to bless us.

We should test ourselves and ask, "Am I being shaped more by the secular spirit of the world, or by the Spirit of God?" I challenge you to find time each day to turn the world off. Be still. Come into God's presence. We'll give quality time to a friend, a therapist, a class, a pastor, or a doctor. We'll find time to eat, but we're not very good at giving quality time to God, the one who really nourishes us. It is imperative you find time in your schedule for God.

Our policy, for this moment, is to conceal ourselves…I do not think you will have much difficulty in keeping the patient in the dark. The fact that "devils" are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that he therefore cannot believe in you.

Satan is alive today and has a reinforced army. Scripture is clear the enemy isn't one demon but an entire legion of evil spirits following Satan's commands (Mark 5:1-20). The world is under Satan's control. Although created to serve God, today it is Satan's kingdom. He is able to use it to accomplish his purposes and oppose Christ's. Satan's work is widespread and destructive and God permits his evil activity for the time being.

If Satan doesn't attack Christians, why are we instructed to put on the full armor of God so that we will be able to stand safe against all strategies and tricks of Satan (Eph. 6:1, TLB)? The mind is Satan's most frequent target of attacks. Scripture supports this. Satan incited David to take a census of Israel (1 Chron. 21:1). Judas's thoughts of betrayal against Jesus came from Satan (John 13.2). When Judas realized what he did, he took his own life. Suicide is a tragically permanent choice to a temporary problem, which I think best describes Satan's modem operandi.

Satan deliberately attacks our thought process which ultimately affects our emotions and physical body. Did you know your body reacts to every negative thought because your brain releases chemicals that make your body feel bad? Surely you've noticed how your muscles tense, your heart beats faster, and your hands sweat when under negative pressure.

Why would Satan attack our minds? Because our minds are the part of the image of God where God communicates with us and reveals his will (Eph. 4:23-24). God transforms ours lives by renewing our minds, which he does through his truth-the Word of God (John 17:17).

Unknowingly, we embrace the devil's mind games and accept them as truth. Jesus said, "The devil was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him for he is a liar and the father of all lies" (John 8:44). Lies are very powerful. If Satan can get you to believe a lie, then he can begin to work in your life to lead you away from God and into sin. His primary motive is the murder of our spirit and body.

When we believe the devil's lie instead of God's words of truth, we are powerless to do what is right. This is why he attacks our minds. Our only defense is the inspired Word of God. Faith in God's truth equals victory; faith in Satan's lies equals defeat and destruction. "The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth" (Ps. 145:18).

Satan's mission is to "TAD" us. TAD refers to these malicious fiery darts Satan shoots at us, darts in the form of temptation, accusation, and deception. Our spiritual lives are under attack everyday. It is a war for our hearts and minds and bodies-our very souls. Our plan must be to make the enemy sorry he ever picked on us!

Literally, flesh is our physical nature, the muscular and fatty tissue parts of the body, which are separate from our spirit or soul. Figuratively, flesh is equated to our fallen, sinful, and dysfunctional nature (Gal. 5:17; Jude 23)-humanity's natural orientation away from God. The moment we are born, the struggle with our flesh begins because we are born slaves to sin (John 8:34). We are less able to choose right. Until you understand your fleshly nature, conquering toxic thoughts will be hindered. When our flesh dominates the mind, our thinking is compromised (Romans 8:5).

The flesh is our desires. Desires are good in themselves, such as desires for food, sleep, shelter and sex; desires to achieve and succeed. The notion of sin has basically disappeared from American society. The accusation that you have sinned is often said in a joking tone. We use the term when we talk of consuming a huge piece of double fudge cheese cake. Instead of sin, we speak of crime and its symptoms. Usually our sinful actions stem from an inner urge to fulfill our own fleshly, self-centered desires, which Paul calls "the deeds of the flesh." Do any of these words in Galatians 5:19-21 (TLB) describe what's in your heart?

When you follow your own wrong inclinations, your lives will produce these evil results: impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, spiritism (encouraging the activity of demons), hatred and fighting, jealousy and anger, constant effort to get the best for yourself, complaints and criticisms, the feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group-and there will be wrong doctrine, envy, murder, drunkenness, wild parties, and all that sort of thing.

Today we are less likely than our grandparents to learn about the doctrine of sin. Why is it such an uneasy topic? Like death, it's just unlikable. It goes against what our culture teaches. We don't want to think of ourselves as bad or evil people, even though the Bible teaches that this is what we are by nature. Sin is like a foreign language; many of us just can't grasp the concept of it.

Sin is serious business, and insults God. It always has moral consequences. The solution for overcoming sin is reconciliation with God. When we become Christians, God declares war on the sin-the deeds of our flesh. He came up with an amazing way out. His Son, Jesus Christ, out of his incomparable love, chose to give up his divine godly attributes, and heaven, to become mortal. Jesus took on literal flesh, called "incarnation," in order to become a human sacrifice to free us from the bondage of our own figurative flesh-our sin. He did not have to take on humanity, but he chose to do so for this period of time. It also enabled him to identify with our difficulties.

Jesus destroyed sin's control over us by giving himself as a sacrifice for our sins. He gives the sinner a writ of pardon. Jesus accepts the sinner unto himself, adopting that person into his family and embraces them as a loving shepherd who has found his one precious lost sheep.

Secondly, the fact that Jesus took upon himself our full human nature is a reminder that to be human is not evil-it is good! One can be released from bondage to sin. It requires a renewing of the mind-the ability of the Word of God to give us discernment, direction, hope, clarity, wisdom, and changed thinking.

Are you ready to fight for your heart, mind, and soul?

Resource: Breaking the Cover Girl Mask: Toss Out Toxic Thoughts