I think it was Snoopy, in the Peanuts comic strip, who said, "We have seen the enemy, and they is us.
" (If it wasn't Snoopy, I apologize - but whoever did say it, got it right.
) Often, we spend a great deal of time and energy looking for an enemy "out there" somewhere: our family, friends or workmates; our boss or pastor or the government; the weather, global warming or the financial crisis.
And when all else fails we can always blame the devil and his demons.
Now I am not for a moment suggesting that people never do anything to harm us; or that political systems, the environment and economics don't, on occasion, cause us problems.
And most certainly the devil and his cohorts are always seeking for an opportunity to attack us.
What I am saying is that all too often we give these things far more credit than they are due.
Sure, they may play some role in the problems we face, but often the root of the problem lies not in front of our eyes, but immediately behind them.
It all starts with our thinking.
I was reminded again this week of a saying I first heard very early in my Christian life: Sow a thought - reap a feeling; Sow a feeling - reap an attitude; Sow an attitude - reap an action; Sow an action - reap a habit.
Let's look at it a little more closely.
Many people believe that emotions are simply things that come upon us, that we have no control over them and can do nothing to either cause or prevent them.
This is absolutely not true.
Feelings are the result of thoughts.
They are brought on by the things we tell ourselves about our circumstances or what is happening in our lives at the moment.
Take an example: You are walking down the street and your friend, Mary, walks by without even acknowledging you.
If you think to yourself, "What a snob! Just who does she think she is to just ignore me like that!" then you will start feeling angry.
If you think, "Mary mustn't like me any more," then you will begin to feel sad or abandoned.
If you think, "Mary must have some kind of serious worry that she didn't notice me," feelings of compassion will begin to come over you.
If you think, "TeHe, Mary's off in her own little world again.
I'm going to give her heaps when I see her next!" then you will stir up feelings of affection toward your friend.
Did any of those feelings "just happen"? No, they were all directly prompted by your thoughts.
A feeling is the consequence of a thought.
We can change the feelings by changing the thoughts.
What we cannot do is separate the thought and its consequence, the feeling.
Feelings, in turn, produce attitudes.
Attitudes are the spectacles through which we view life.
If we regularly allow ourselves to indulge thoughts of being rejected, producing feelings of rejection, these will eventually build into an attitude of rejection.
Instead of just seeing rejection in one person or situation, we will begin to see rejection everywhere, and from everybody.
Once attitudes are entrenched in our lives, we begin to act out from those attitudes.
If we see ourselves as being rejected, we begin to act like a rejected person.
We put up walls.
We take things personally.
We respond as if we had been rejected, even if the person speaking was not directing his words to us in any way.
The really sad thing is, when we act like this we actually bring rejection upon ourselves.
It's as if we had stuck a big sign on our backs saying "Reject Me!" The same applies to every attitude we act out.
Finally, those actions become a habit.
Psychologists tell us that it only takes three weeks to establish a habit - and most people have been acting out their attitudes much longer than that! These things become our normal way of doing things, and the further we go the harder the pattern becomes to break.
Then, somewhere down the track, we realize that we have a problem going on in our lives.
To stick with our illustration of rejection, we realize that we are being rejected right, left and center.
That's when we start throwing out the blame.
It's the fault of the people around us, who reject us.
It's our parents' fault, because they rejected us.
Maybe there is a demon of rejection operating in our lives? We seek deliverance, and get no results.
The uncomfortable truth is, even if there is a demonic force involved, it is there because we gave it a comfortable place to lodge.
We are the problem: not our parents, not our friends, not our boss, not demons.
What we have to do is go back to the beginning and change the equation.
This whole downward spiral started with our thoughts.
By changing our thoughts, we can reverse the spiral.
Now, it will not be easy, nor will it be instant.
In the beginning we will have to consciously grab our thoughts and tell ourselves, "No.
That isn't the truth.
This is.
" To do that, we need the Word of God, so that we can replace the lies we have been telling ourselves with the truth of Scripture; and we need the Spirit of God, Who will help and empower us in our new way of thinking.
Yes, we can be our own greatest enemy.
But we can also be our own best friend.
It all depends on how we think.