Destructive thoughts are usually not humorous … However this one is … A woman who sang at the church I once attended was a magnificent coloratura soprano. (opera singer quality voice)
One day she was driving along the street and came to a stop sign and stopped her car. As she waited at the intersection, a thought came to her:
“Wouldn’t a cigarette taste good right now?”
She entertained this thought for a few seconds … and then she shouted aloud:
“No … a cigarette wouldn’t taste good right now!”
Emogene had never smoked a cigarette in her life.
Singers of her level do all things possible to protect their voices.
Where did that thought come from?
We really don’t know. It could have come from an advertisement. It could have come from hearing someone speak of needing a “smoke”. It probably didn’t come from her own flesh since she had never smoked.
It is a destructive thought.
Jn. 10:10 … Jesus says
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Often destructive thoughts come from our own flesh … envy, strife, hatred, trying to be better than others, pride, arrogancy, and various lusts of the flesh and eyes.
Certainly the devil can send destructive thoughts.
The devil tempted Jesus:
Lk. 4:1-4 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil.
And in those days HE did eat nothing: and when they were ended, HE afterward hungered.
And the devil said unto Him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.
And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
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Lk. 4:5-8 And the devil, taking HIM up into an high mountain, shewed unto HIM all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto HIM, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If THOU therefore wilt worship me, all shall be THINE.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan:for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and HIM only shalt thou serve.
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Lk. 4:9-13 And he brought HIM to Jerusalem, and set HIM on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto HIM, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from HIM for a season.
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Often the point of our greatest desire will be the entry for the temptation, especially if we want what others have and we have not been able to get such for ourselves.
You can begin to examine:
What do I desire?
If you desire grandchildren and do not have any, likely everywhere you go you will encounter happy looking elderly people with grandchildren.
If you have overspent and built up credit card bills, you may find you are thinking about money constantly.
If you wanted to attend college but did not get to do so, you may find a strong temptation to pretend to others that you were a college person.
But we are of God and not of the world … therefore we have a way of escape.
We can turn to God in prayer, asking God to help us in the time of temptation.
When we are tempted to share a secular story with another person and we know that story would be troubling to the other person or would not be edifying to the other person, we can pray, asking God not to allow us to tell that. I have often prayed this and God has never failed to stop me from speaking that destructive story.
And we can ask God for help when we are troubled and can focus on that which God brings to our mind after we pray.
Also we can ask God for wisdom in how to deal with the troubling matter and we have the promise that God will give us wisdom, when we ask for wisdom.
James 1:5 ... If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.