A few years ago, a friend of mine came to me with a desperate
concern for his girlfriend. She was in a depression and thinking suicidal
thoughts. He explained to me her tragic past and how she was raped a few years
earlier. I asked him what she does when she gets depressed. His response was
that she listened to her favorite song.
But my friend’s girlfriend made a bad choice in her number
one song to go to when she was depressed. Her and her one boyfriend were into a
nu metal rock band that was known for their obscene lyrics. When I looked up
the song he said she listened to, it was a song about rape, but from the raper’s
perspective. Essentially, every time she was depressed, she would listen to a
song from a man telling her why he raped her. Do you see why this was not
helping her cope with her depression?
When I pointed this out to him, he was shocked. He got her
to stop listening to it, and the band altogether. Soon her whole demeanor and
outlook on life began to change.
Music has power, doesn’t it? It can bring peace, motivation,
and memories. Every once in a while and old pop song will come on the radio and
it transports me back to a grocery store in Trinidad where I first heard it on
a missions trip! It brings back found memories for me. I have music I like to
work out to, worship to, sleep to, wake up to, etc. Music is good. But we have
to careful about the lyrics.
Now I’m not going to go into an anti-rock’n roll speech here.
There are plenty of good songs to listen to out there. What I’m challenging you
to do, is be critically minded in what you choose to hear, and I’m not just
talking about music. What do you listen too? What makes it into your mind?
There’s music, podcasts, friend’s advice, gossip, and so on.
Even as you read something, are you listening to it? This would then include
texting, social media posts, etc. There are messages being fed to you all
around you constantly, some you can control, some you can’t. But are you
engaging this and protecting your ears and mind from the barrage of noise out
there?
The Bible tells us that words can destroy and hurt, or they
can heal and mend. Proverbs 18:21 says that our words wield the power of death
and life. The information we listen to,
what we hear, has the power to build us up or bring us down.
Music
Do you ever just ask yourself about the lyrics of the songs
you listen to? You may actually have the song memorized, but you’ve never
really paid attention to them. Read the lyrics sometime and discern the message
you are pumping into your brain. Does it bring life or death? Does it represent
God’s best for your life or is it a perversion of what is good?
Texting/Social Media
People today are spending tons of time on their smartphones
or computer screens these days. What are you reading on these devices? Is the
message a life giving message or does it bring death? Remember that people have
a false sense of bravery behind a keyboard or on a device then they do in
person. People say rash things, hurtful things online that they would never say
to your face. Are you believing the lies they are saying? Or do you know what
God thinks about you (Psalm 139) and believe Him?
Gossip
Are you listening to what people are saying about other
people? Is it life giving or destructive? Is what someone saying about another
person causing you to think ill thoughts of that person? What are you going to
do about it? Gossip is a sin. How do you handle gossip?
When someone begins to gossip around me, I like to try to
cut it off before it gets started. I’ll say something like, “Oh look there he
is right now, let’s call him over and you can finish saying what you started.”
Or “have you told her that? You should really be talking to her about that and
not me.” Or if I’ve already heard too much, “You need to tell him that you told
me that, I’ll give you 24 hours to tell him, then I’m going to tell him.”
When you respond in similar fashion, quickly people begin to
realize that you won’t tolerate gossip and begins to stop.
Now what is gossip? I’ll just define it as talking about
someone to make them look foolish or harm their reputation to others. It can be
subtle and you might not even realize you are involved in it at first, but
think about what the person is saying. I’ve been to prayer meetings where the
prayer requests were more like a gossip board then prayer requests.
Ask yourself, is this something I need to know? Is this something
I can help with? Does this information improve my view of this person? If you
answered “no” to these, then you are probably dealing with gossip.
Look, people will vent and they say things, but you need to
know how to process it. Sometimes you can be a counselor to someone and help
them think through and properly respond. But you have to be careful, lest you
become a sponge for gossip and it causes you to think negatively upon others
and become a gossiper yourself.
The Enemy’s Lies
We have a very real enemy who has come to kill, steal and
destroy our joy (John 10:10). He speaks lies to us constantly and we need to be
on guard. Whatever medium it is delivered by, you have to learn to discern it
and shut it up. Often times, they pervade our own thoughts and deceive us.
Did you know that you can’t trust your own thoughts on their
own? You have to filter them through the Word of God. You think lies about
yourself. You have allowed distortions of truth to bounce around in your mind
for so long that you think they are reality. You have to continually go back to
what the Word of God says about you and believe what God says above all else.
Conclusion
God tells us to guard our hearts, for from it flows the
springs of life (Proverbs 4:23). What we hear shapes our perception of reality.
Your thoughts are important. What you allow to enter into your mind shapes your
perspective constantly. There is a battle going on and our enemy does not want
you to believe what God has said as truth.
Have you ever seen a movie or TV show where the bad guy
slowly kills the victim by slowly administering a little bit of poison at a time
so it goes undetected?
If you are a believer, this is what the enemy likes to do to
you. He gets you hear what you should not hear. Once you hear it, you cannot un-hear
it. It’s in your mind and it shapes your thoughts and your heart. These negative
messages, the evil content, distract you and dull your hearing (Hebrews 5:11)
from what God is trying to say to you.
Take a moment and think through what you listen to, what do
you hear throughout the day? What do you need to stop listening to? What do you
need to examine critically? Are you willing to protect your ears and your heart
by giving up what is necessary?
When you make a commitment to hear no evil by filtering what
you allow in, you will see a change. Maybe you have been robbed of joy for some
time. God can and will restore your joy when you remove the evil lies and bring
in the truth.
You shall hear the Truth and the Truth will set you free!
