Have you ever taken wallpaper off a wall? It is hard work. You’re lucky if the person who put it up primed the walls first. It comes off fairly easy then. If they didn’t prime the walls, you can have a terrible mess on your hands. It might come off in strips and pieces, tearing throughout, causing hours of tedious work for you.
Friends of mine who served in the mission field for 11 years moved back to the United States. They just closed on a house nearby and they had a lot of wallpaper they wanted to remove so they could paint. I went over with steamer, scrapers, and various other tools necessary to take the wallpaper down and we spent the day working. In the master bathroom, the wallpaper came off easily, almost in long sheets. When we got into the bathroom in the hallway, we found all sorts of surprises. There were rips and tears along the way and we discovered layer upon layer of wallpaper we had to remove. It was a mess.
The enemy’s number one goal is to kill, steal and destroy us [John 10:10]. If he can’t keep us from heaven, his next strategy is to wallpaper our minds with his lies and convince us we are something we’re not, so we become ineffective for the Kingdom. He is the father of lies. In fact, Jesus was talking to the Pharisees in John 8:44 and said, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
The way we fight the devil is to remove his lies from our minds and replace those lies with the Truth of God’s Word and paper our minds with His truth. “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” [John 8:32] As the old saying goes, “Out with the old and in with the new” we must get rid of our stinking thinking and replace it with the Word of God.
Philippians 4:8 tells us “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable– if anything is excellent or praiseworthy– think about such things.” Joshua 1:8 encourages us: “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”
As we begin to wallpaper our minds with the Word of God, we resist the devil and to quote Bon Qui Qui “He’s got to go!” [James 4:7]. You may not know the first thing about hanging wallpaper in a room, and I must admit I am with you; however, you can wallpaper your mind all day long with the promises of God. Allow Him to declare who you are and what your situation is instead of the enemy. It’s your mind and you have the power to decide how you are going to decorate it.