Alice in Wonderland

The devil doesn't care what you believe just so long as it's total bullcrap.

Your natural mind is a carnival funhouse hall of mirrors filled with spooks and clowns and long, deviating dead ends filled with the promise of finally "figuring things out."

Remember the story of Alice in Wonderland. Now, if you're like me, you probably assumed that there was some deeper meaning, some symbolism, some sort of moral to the story. But you'd be wrong just like I was. Read Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" for confirmation. He is writing nonsense. But when you're in a world filled with nonsense, you can't help but look for truth and meaning. That's why we can identify with Alice even though she's in a nonsense world surrounded by irrational creatures. It's a lot like living in the world surrounded by people who are held captive to irrational beliefs and motivated by evil desires and cut off from the light of God. And our own minds are a lot like Wonderland, too. We can go down the rabbit hole of our thoughts and imaginations and think we are finding profound truths and deeper meanings, or maybe we're just grasping for truth where there is none.

Jer 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?"

The Lord then answers His own question in the next verse:

"I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings."

Be very careful about harboring evil desires. Desires turn into intentions. Intentions turn into actions. Ask the Lord to shine His light in you, and confess your evil desires as sins so they can be rooted out before they grow into evil intentions or evil actions.

Proverb 3:5-6 (NIV) Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV) Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

You cannot over-estimate the importance of trusting in the Lord and of submitting your carnal mind to His guidance and making His word your guide over your own thinking.

He is God. You are not. If you cannot understand His word, ask Him to illuminate your mind and trust Him to interpret His own word. Let the Bible interpret the Bible, and submit your understanding to His interpretation. Don't ever force a convenient interpretation upon the Word of God. It should speak with such force as to make you rather change your own understanding instead of attempting to make His word more palletable.

You cannot over-estimate the power of the human mind to deceive its self in order to justify pursuing the shiny things that your own vain imagination conjures up. Your mind is driven by emotion, and images and ideas from your mind will trigger those emotions. Those emotions will then drive your intellect to figure out a way to capture the promised reward that your imagination created, like a carrot on a stick. You will wander the desert seeking that reward and be filled with despair once you realize you cannot ever have the false thing your imagination convinced you that you need.

All you need, all you could ever want, more wonderful than you could ever imagine, is already yours in Christ Jesus. Stop striving, stop worrying, stop trying to justify yourself, stop trying to fulfil yourself. Come to the secret place and rest in God's quiet peace and let Him unravel the tangled mess of your thoughts and your emotions and your intentions. He is your great reward, He is your counsellor, He is your comforter, He is your advocate, He is your peace.

Come to Jesus, quiet your heart before Him, and say "Lord I surrender. I surrender my desires and the intentions of my heart."