Faulty thinking is costly. It can cost you your job, your family, your money, your future and even your life. Take the example of Joseph Stack who last week crashed his small plane into an I.R.S. office building in Austin, Texas. It seems that he felt that hopeless in dealing with tax laws that restricted his ability to market his skills and setup his own business. In his online explanation of his actions he expressed his frustration with the government and his many attempts to get laws changed. Having failed in these attempts Joseph took out his frustrations on the personnel and property of the I.R.S. The result was the end of his own life and the life of another person, injuries to others and thousands of dollars of property damage. His thinking was faulty on many levels:

• It was erroneous to think that one’s problems with the tax code were not solvable. Tax experts have analyzed Joseph’s situation and concluded that he lacked good accounting advice.
• It was erroneous to think that setbacks whether financial, physical or emotional are reason enough to end one’s life; our lives still have value and purpose; it is always too soon to quit!
• It was erroneous to think that hurting others would diminished his own pain. Such actions only create more pain. Did Joseph stop to consider how he would feel if a stranger killed a member of his family in a vendetta against a business or an organization?
• It was erroneous to think that his actions would not result in suffering and negative consequences for his family.
• It was erroneous to think that he was entitled to be judge, jury and executioner in condemning the system that he was up against. He did not consider that he might be wrong in his reasoning.

Thus, by his actions, Joseph demonstrated his own pride by:

• his taking matters into his own hands.
• his lack of consulting with those who have dealt with the same problems.
• his disregard for the lives and safety of others.
• his lack of awareness that when faced with overwhelming stress he should seek out those who can provide him with encouragement and emotional support so that he might not give in to defeat and self-destruction.

Such are the results of faulty thinking.

So what is faulty thinking and how can we avoid it? Faulty thinking is an incorrect or limited view of our selves, our situation or a solution to a problem. It is the kind of thinking that usually results in making decisions that are not in the best interest of ourselves or of those around us. It is not just a mental problem; it is a spiritual problem too. Our thinking is affected by the environment in which we live; by our education, our relationships, the media and the system of the world in which we live. And there is a spirit that is a part of the world’s system. The Apostle Paul identifies it as the spirit of the world:

You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience; among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Ephesians 2:1-3

The spirit of the world is according to Satan’s perspective and purposes. Remember that Satan is a deceiver and it is his intention to toward God’s people is to steal, kill and destroy. This is not the spirit that we want to live by. But there is another Spirit that we born again believers have access to:

But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God. 1Corinthians 2:12

We do not have to live according to the spirit of the world which tries to appeal to our flesh, our sinful nature. Rather through meditating on God’s word we have access to God’s higher thoughts and his higher ways that will renewed our minds, free us from the world’s pattern of thinking and lead us to discover the things that God freely gives us. The unfolding of God’s word gives us light that can illuminate any dark situation that we may find ourselves in. And by learning to keep ourselves yielded to God’s Spirit as we interact with others and with the world we can experience life and peace rather than defeat as Paul explains in Romans 8:

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:5, 6

Thus, we do not have to be victims of faulty thinking for we are not called to be defeated. God has better things in store for us; He called us to be conquerors. And conquerors we shall be as we practice casting our care on the Lord Jesus, obeying God’s word and following the promptings of his Spirit.