Anxious Thoughts Waking You Up? Here's Something You Might Not Have Considered...

If Satan has to wake you up in the middle of the night to talk, you probably shouldn't listen to what he says.

You ever heard of of a date you have to be a little drunk to like? A good friend would tell you it's not worth it.

I have news for you: The reason Satan only wants to talk about your problems in the dead of night when you’re half-conscious is because that’s the only time his narrative makes sense.

I used to struggle with bad dreams for years—starting as early as I can remember. In my twenties, the nightmares mostly stopped, but they were replaced with anxious thoughts. By my thirties, I had months at a time where I couldn’t seem to get a full night’s rest. At some point, I just got fed up with being bullied by my own mind.

The Psalmist David mentions sleep more than once. It seems that thousands of years ago, humans were still fighting the same mental health battles. One of God's promises in the Bible is good sleep. The fact that He made a point to mention it shows us that this is something God wants for us.

As Christians, we believe that our struggles are multi-dimensional. There is a natural part and a spiritual part. For the natural part, cutting my caffeine and living a slower-paced lifestyle have helped my nighttime rest tremendously. But sometimes, the root of the problem has more than one source, and we can't ignore that we have an enemy.

Mental health is a trendy subject and new terms are being coined every day. One I find fitting is "intrusive thoughts." That is what psychologists are calling the attacks of the mind. The word intrusive comes from intrude—to enter a place uninvited or unwelcome. Like a trespasser breaking in, even the non-religious recognize that some thoughts must be rejected as foreign invaders, not accepted as our own. It's not just your own voice in your head.

Now, back to those nighttime rendezvous with the enemy. I’ve noticed that when I wake up in the middle of the night, the thoughts running through my head can feel so real. The situation seems so bleak. But when morning comes, it’s as if the spell is broken. Suddenly, I have a much more balanced perspective.

That thing I said didn’t sound that bad.

It’s not all lost already.

That was just a narrative Satan spewed while I wasn’t awake enough to reject it.

Satan is a liar—the father of lies, actually. So, like, the best liar that ever lived. And what do good liars do? They weave their deception so intricately into the truth that you don’t even realize where one ends and the other begins.

Satan doesn’t deal in outright fabrications. Instead, he takes real truths—your story, your personality, your struggles, your history, your family, your fears, your shortcomings—and distorts them just enough to deceive you. He wants you to believe his twisted version so completely that you accept it as your own voice. And once you do, you’ve walked straight into his trap.

What does he get out of it? His main goal is to get us to agree with him. What you believe matters because God has given us creative power. If he can convince you to believe in his twisted narrative, you’ll start manifesting it—sometimes even without realizing it.

You will act according to those beliefs and give life to your beliefs with your words. You will do all the heavy lifting for him, carrying out his plans to destroy your life from start to finish and all he had to do was whisper the starting idea in your head. He relishes in our ignorance and compliance, and celebrates our defeat. The quicker you learn to win the battlefield of the mind, the more you will walk in victory.

So the next time he wakes you up to tell you that your life is over, everyone at work hates you, your kid is on the wrong path, your business will fail, that everyone thinks you're dumb, or whatever else it may be.. Remember:

This is so untrue that he had to wait until you were unconscious to try to shove it down your throat.

So, do yourself a favor, and go back to sleep with a smile.