Take your Bibles and open them up to Joshua 6. Start right there. Looking down into verse number one. The Bible says [1] Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. [2] And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. [3] And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. [4] And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. [5] And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, I just want to thank You, Lord, for your word and for what it does in our hearts and minds. And Lord, I pray that tonight You would speak to hearts and that You would just lead us to the place that’s just a little higher than the rock that we’re standing on. Lord, I need You and I love You. And I am surrendered to You. I ask this in Your precious name, Amen.

I want to speak on this subject here: Prison or Protection. Prison or Protection.  it’s an amazing thing what our minds can do. He can grab onto an experience, a perception or misconception, and build it into a conviction that becomes so strong it affects the rest of your life.

I remember when I was a little boy in Oakland. I was probably in second grade, and my mom went over to her friend’s house. And it was over in San Leandro. San Leandro is known for all its cherry orchards. And this lady—she had cherry trees all in her backyard. And so, while they were talking Spanish and I wasn’t speaking Spanish, I was in the backyard with all these trees. It was a hot summer day, and all the cherries were in bloom and I was climbing those trees, and I was foraging and just eating all the cherries off the trees, having a good time. But it was hot, so I came in. I said, “You have anything to drink?” And they said, “Sure, here there’s a big, tall glass of milk after eating half of tree of cherries, and I downed that cold glass of milk. I was fine for a while, but when I got home, man, I was sick, like, seriously traumatizing sick in my stomach. And,  ever since then, I have a problem with cherries and milk. It did something. Now, there’s nothing wrong with cherries and milk. You can eat them and drink. People have cherry pie and sit down with a glass of milk. But I never fail to say, “You’re going to get sick.” It always does something to me.

My mom when she was a little girl on the Mediterranean got rolled by a wave one time. She loved the water, but she got rolled by a big wave one day, and her whole life since, she hasn’t been able to put her head under the water. And for her to come here and to get baptized, and submit—that’s the first time I’ve ever seen my mom underwater. She had to overcome a stronghold, something that she perceived when she was a kid, and had never been able to get over.

My brother put many of strongholds in me growing up! But one of them was on the was on the bus route. We were out visiting on Phoenix St., and these little kids had these Mexican candies called Limón. And they were there selling those the little packets. I didn’t know what they were, but he buys a couple packets, and he opens it up. Then he just disappears. Kind of walks away from it. I didn’t know. I’m trying to say, “Where do you live and where do you live?” And I’m trying to figure out where they are and get them signed up on the bus. Then he comes back and goes, “ you really got to try that. It’s kind of different, but you’ll like it.” All it was was salt and lemon. So, he goes and he buys me one, and I dumped the whole thing on my tongue. And I’m telling you, I started almost crying and I got all these kids going. “It’s good, huh? It’s good, huh?” I didn’t want to, like, spit it out. So, I held that thing in my mouth. But to this day, when I see salt—Somebody will go, “Hey, man, here, have some fries.” They rip the bag open, and they start doing this, and my mouth still waters. I could not get anywhere near salt for a long, long time because of what that did to me. It built a stronghold in my mind.

Misconceptions in our mind can be a stronghold. Even when you’re confronted with the truth, you can hold firm to the lie that’s in your head. Like I said, people eat cherry pie and have a glass of milk all the time. But I still think they’re going to be sick. You know what it is? It’s called struggling with a stronghold. It’s something in your mind that we believe to be true. And in many cases, what we believe is not necessarily true. Okay? And if we don’t examine our thinking, well, then it can begin to control us, and it can even destroy us.

So, what is a stronghold in history? A stronghold was referred to as a fortress or a fortified city. And we just read about a stronghold in the Bible days. A classic Bible example was the city of Jericho. When the children Israel crossed the Jordan River, the first city they faced was Jericho. It was surrounded by walls that were so thick they could run two chariots side by side, all the way down it. The people had enough room in the wall to actually build apartments and live inside the wall. From a human standpoint staring at the walls of this city, it was impossible to conquer. It wouldn’t even be a thought. There was no military weapon that was available in that day that could penetrate those walls. They couldn’t even remotely breach them. And not only that—because the walls hadn’t been breached, it had a reputation of being undefeated. But Jericho had never faced the power of God before. And even though they didn’t have any weapons that would be able to defeat an enemy like that or penetrate those walls on their own, they did have the Lord on their side. And after seven days of marching around the city, they got to see the walls crumble.

The walls of Jericho represent a physical or a physical stronghold or fortress. But Satan is working very hard to build spiritual and emotional strongholds in our thoughts. His goal is to deceive us into getting a perception or a misconception of something. He wants to deceive us so that he can build that into a stronghold and begin to control us. And once he has control of us, he will then push it all the way over to destroying us. And his goal is to deceive, control and destroy the whole world. You tell me. How is he doing? How’s he doing? But just like the walls of Jericho, the strongholds seemed unconquerable.

Some strongholds, they seem unconquerable to us because without God’s help, they are unconquerable. You know what the slippery, sneaky thing about a stronghold is? It’s that I won’t see one in my life, but he could see one. You could see one, but because it’s based on faulty thinking and misconceptions that I believe I’m the last to see it. Everybody can see it but me…because if it was based on truth, well, then I could pick up on it. I could figure it out. I can’t. And just like the walls of Jericho, we are unable to conquer. We’re unable to recognize that faulty thinking without God’s help. We’re unable to conquer those thoughts in our own strength. We can conquer them through the weapons that God has given us and provided for us.

In the verse just before He introduced strongholds to us, God gives us a promise, a weapon. In 2 Corinthians 10:3 it says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: [4] (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.”

So God tells us—he gives us a promise—He’s giving us the promise of being able to pull down strongholds in our life. And he also tells us that because He gives us that weapon, it gives us the obligation that we need to use that weapon. Okay, it’s one thing to be given a weapon, but it’s another thing to use a weapon. It’s one thing to have a sword; it’s another thing to wield a sword. It’s one thing to have the Bible, and it’s another thing to wield the Bible.

You can have a weapon, and it can do you no good, but because He’s given us these weapons and because He’s provided them for us, we’re obligated to take the weapon He gave us and use them in our life. In order to feed any stronghold or reprogram any bad thinking or false thinking in our lives, we have to cast down imaginations—bring thoughts into captivity. The way it works is: you get thoughts, but if you get recurring thoughts, they get sewn together and become an imagination. One thing is certain is that we are going to face strongholds throughout our life. And if you’re sitting here and you’re saying today, “Well, you know what? I don’t have any strongholds. I hope I hope [others are] listening to all this.” Well, then you got one, because odds are you wouldn’t see it because of a faulty thinking, deceived thinking.

We’re going to face them. For some, it may be the stronghold of unbelief. That’s a persistent, recurring thought that God is not able, and He’s not trustworthy. I meet people at the door all the time that have this stronghold.

For some, it may be the stronghold of no hope. Thoughts that defeat you before you even try. It’s like God gives you a thought, but your stronghold defeats you before you even put it in motion to make it happen. And you live your whole life defeated with no hope.

For some, it may be the stronghold of unforgiveness, an inability to see past a wrong that somebody’s committed against you, and it causes you to refuse the grace of God that He offering to you to get over it. You just can’t get past what somebody did.

For some it may be the stronghold of an addiction. Someone convinced you that you need something that you can totally live without, and people do all the time. There was a day when I thought, Man, there is no way I could get up and do what I gotta do without drugs. I was so wrong. Yeah, I had a stronghold, but, boy, I was the last to see it, and that’s how it always is.

For some, it may be the stronghold of being unteachable. That’s an attitude of silent or verbal superiority. That keeps you from learning along the way because you’re always the smartest person in the room, and you might be in the smartest person in the world. What have I got to learn? You’ll be the last to see it. People are looking at you thinking you’re dumb as dirt, but not to you. It’s because of the stronghold of faulty thinking that has been built up.

Whatever the stronghold in your life, here’s the definition you want to keep in your mind. A bad stronghold is a faulty thinking pattern based on lies, misconceptions, and deceptions. Strongholds are concentrated thinking patterns. They’re not random thoughts. Nobody can prevent sinful, random thoughts from appearing in their mind. We may have a fleeting cloud of adultery or thievery or envy or suicide or addiction or negativity. You fill in the blank we may have. We’ll have those thoughts pop through our mind. We cannot help that. We’re not guilty for what pops in through our minds. But we are held guilty for the thoughts that we’re allowing to dwell on. They’re the ones that we’re allowing to get sewn together. Negative, Negative, Negative. Now I got a picture of negativity, and the thing it becomes starts out with a little three second commercial. But you let that carry on and you’ve got a two hour movie of negativity that’s been going through your head all day.

I guess it’s my Catholic upbringing. There were two monks, and they were traveling along in the old days and they came to a river. They had both taken vows of celibacy. They come to the river, and there’s this lady there. She is in a one of those frilly wide hip dresses, and she’s fretting over how she’s going to get over the creek. The old monk steps into the water, goes up to the rock and says, “Get on” and carries her across the river and sets her down on the other side. Se says, “Oh, thank you” and she keeps going. Two miles down the road, the young monk is going, “I gotta ask you something. Didn’t that bother you?” And the old monks says, “What?” “That lady… didn’t that bother you?” And he says, “No. I was just being kind, doing what Jesus would have done, but I put her back. I put her down two miles ago. What about you? You’re still carrying her?” See, that’s how strongholds are built. Reoccurring long-play thoughts, faulty thinking that you’re allowing in your head for a long time, day after day, day after day, little by little.

Just like the walls of Jericho weren’t built immediately, strongholds don’t appear overnight. Satan works hard to plant them in your mind. And from these fortresses of lies, he’ll work overtime to destroy you with him and destroy everyone around you with him.

It starts with a toe hold when you’re young. Toeholds. It’s just little wrong thoughts. It’s just-a-little-thing patterns. It’s just a little bit. Toeholds are no big deal. But when you start hitting your teenage decision-making years, those toeholds turn into footholds.

How many of you have ever had some youngster try to tackle you? They grab your foot, and you can just go, “Yeah, you’re not slowing me down.” You can drag that thing along, it becomes a foothold. But you know what? After a while, it turns into a stronghold. Now I want to go there, but it won’t let me. I want to do this, but it won’t let me. I want to go here and it won’t let me. And then if it if it’s not torn down, it turns into a stranglehold. And that’s when he gets you right around the throat and chokes you out.

There are so many ways Satan tries to twist our thinking. I mean, look at what he’s doing with media, Facebook, Twitter. Although you don’t think all those media giants have not come and discovered exactly how to control the masses, that’s the whole problem. But I’ll say this: Satan tries to twist our thinking so many different ways. don’t think he’s ever talked directly to a person. He always talks behind something. I mean, the serpent was here, and he talked through the serpent. The phone was here, and he talked through the phone. The announcer was here, and he talked through that. He always talks through something. You never see him. So, you don’t think it’s him, but it’s always those lies and deception.

There are two kinds of strongholds. We have weapons, and we have a place of safety in attacks. Two types of strongholds: prison strongholds or protection strongholds. The kind we’ve been talking about—our prison strongholds—they keep us from freedom. They keep us from the truth. Prison strongholds keep us from being delivered.

But there’s another kind of stronghold that we should flee to. It’s the stronghold of protection. Psalm 18, Verse two says this, “Psalm 18:2–6 “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. 3. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: So shall I be saved from mine enemies. 4. The sorrows of death compassed me, And the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. 5. The sorrows of hell compassed me about: The snares of death prevented me. 6. In my distress I called upon the Lord, And cried unto my God: He heard my voice out of his temple, And my cry came before him, even into his ears.”

See, a stronghold is any place to which you run to when you’re attacked. When the trumpets blew and the enemy was approaching, they ran to the city. They ran to the stronghold. They ran to the fortress. And you have a strong hold to run to. I think I heard this a little bit in the song that we sang leading up to this message tonight.

The question is, which stronghold will you run to? Do you run to the prison stronghold based on lies and deceptions? Or, do you run to the protection stronghold of the unchanging truth? Where do you go when you get down? When you begin to feel sorry for yourself,  to whom do you flee when you lose your temper? Who is that person you’re talking to in the other room? Anyone? Oh, he’s just feeding you lies. And it’s funny how you regurgitate all this stuff—premeditated truths that are not true but misconceptions. And you start rehearsing your stronghold to yourself, reinforcing it. You start putting bricks with every thought, and it gets stronger and stronger and higher and higher. Do you fall back on false thinking patterns, or do you hold on to the truth, or do you do you cry to the Lord? Do you look for the truth?

We can’t afford to be slack in an attack. When the devil attacks you and all of a sudden there’s you feel that there’s a bad spirit, a bad attitude, a bad thought, and you feel your flesh raring, you’re either gonna head for prison and start reaffirming misconceptions and whatever in you, or you’re going to run for protection. You’re going to do one or the other.

So often, we go by how we feel in the circumstance. You don’t get it. I was really down. I’m just giving myself a pep talk when we should be resting in the Bible. And we should have places we go. We should have an arsenal of songs that are in our cars, our vehicles, when my spirit is here and I need to be here, but I ain’t there. There ought to be songs that you have that you can put in that will get you back to the protection that you need. Something to change that thinking. Because if you just continue on in your rant and your rave, you’re gonna go into prison. Maybe not that day, but you’re going to be putting another brick on another brick on another brick on another brick. And if you do that your whole life, you’re going to be in quite a prison.

In this world, whether you realize it or not, there is a huge battle that’s being waged for your mind. It’s at war right now. It’s full blown. And in a world that’s been deceived, those who tell the truth are considered radical rebels. Revolutionaries. We used to just be normal. A biblical pattern of thinking is vital because we literally become what we think about. “As a man, thinketh in his heart, so is he.” You want to be a lawyer? Start having lawyer thoughts. You want to be a doctor? Start having doctor thoughts. We become what we think about. You want to be depressed? Start having depression thoughts. Let them sew them all together and you will become what you think about.

The walls of Jericho weren’t built immediately. Strongholds don’t appear overnight. It first starts with a wrong thought. And then the Holy Spirit convicts you. Then you have two choices: Run to the stronghold of the truth of the word of God and take captive the thought. Or, you run to the stronghold of wrong thinking and you let it linger. And you dwell on that thought. I’m unhappy. I’m miserable. I’m angry. Whatever it is that’s wrong thinking is wrong thinking. And we’re not supposed to let it linger.  The stronghold you choose will either protect you from danger or isolate you from the truth. And it is completely your choice.

Let’s look at a stronghold that seems to be engulfing our world right now. It’s the stronghold of being unhappy. Behind the mask, there’s not a smile. And I believe if we weren’t wearing masks right now, we would see all the frowns that are out there. The heavy hearts, the oppression. There’s a stronghold of being unhappy.  I’ve heard people say, “God never promised that you’d be happy, but he did promise you, joy.”  And yeah,  that’s true. I I’ve heard people describe joy that way, and there’s some truth in that, but actually, not really. There’s not a lot of truth in that. I’ve heard Joy described like it’s a buoy in the bay. It’s affected by the winds, and the current It blows this way. It blows that way, it bounces up and down, back and forth. That’s called happiness. It comes and it goes. But under the surface serves the anchor that reaches to the bottom, and it never changes position. That’s joy and its enduring.

Yeah, that sounds that sounds good. But the truth is, the Bible says we can be happy and then why aren’t we?  we have periods of not being happy from time to time. But why is this world is so unhappy?

You know the word blessed in the Bible. He tells us how we can have happy, and how we could be happy, and how to get it.  every time you see the word “blessed,” He’s saying happy.  “Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they which which hunger and thirst after righteousness.” If you want to be happy, do these things, Psalm one says: Blessed is the man and a happy man that avoids three things: Walking in the council of the ungodly, standing in the way of sinners, and sitting in the seat of the scornful. And because in doing that you’re gonna sow faulty thinking into a long imagination till you finally go from a walk to a stand to a sit, and you now have that stronghold opinion, he says.

You want to be happy? You have to get away from those three things. “But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law does he meditate day and night.” One is a formula for a prison stronghold in the other. One is a formula for protection stronghold, and it’s either prison or protection. Where do you run?

Despite all the teaching on how to be happy, there’s so many Christians that are unhappy, going through tough times. And I understand going through tough times. We’re all going through tough times.  Maybe you include yourself in that category, but you’re looking for joy and you can’t seem to find it. Perhaps you convince yourself through your negative self-talk that you’re not supposed to have it, and that’s wrong. God wants every Christian to be happy and it don’t matter who’s in the white house? That doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not you’re happy.  God wants you—every Christian to be happy,

So how do you defeat that stronghold of unhappiness? You go to the heart of the matter. At the heart of unhappiness is often depression. Way before a doctor ever prescribed a pill, the Bible addresses depression in Psalm 77:4. It says, “Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak.” Depression. Depression is a meditation problem. Depression affects us emotionally. Depression affects us physically. It’s a downward pattern of thinking, and it leads to a stronghold of no hope.

But in the book of Psalms, we see David, a great man of God, going into depression and coming out of depression. And that should give us hope. So, at the heart of unhappiness, there’s depression, a wrong pattern of thinking. At the heart of unhappiness, there’s a disillusionment.

Maybe somebody in authority let you down. So now you wonder. Is anyone real? Is any of it real? Was the election real?  If I commit a crime, I go to jail, but when they commit crimes, they’re promoted and get a book deal. Are their lawyers really that good?  Did they create and release COVID on purpose? Can we trust anyone anymore? Anything anymore? When you’ve been hurt, you get suspicious of others. And as a result of that lack of trust, it breeds unhappiness, especially if you’ve been hurt by a leader.

But to answer the question. Is anybody real? Yeah. There’s a lot of real people out there, and nobody is perfect. We’re all sinners. But there’s a lot of sincere people out there, and I hope God surrounds you with them.

But don’t forget that we need to look to Jesus, not our disillusionment. One sends us to prison. One gives us protection. At the heart of unhappiness, there’s discouragement. Remember Jonah after he went through Whale University? Nineveh repented, and Jonah through a huge pity party. Unchecked discouragement leads to unhappiness.  A prison stronghold? Yeah. All bad thinking.

Remember, David and Ziklag after the battle. You know their town. They were away at the battle, and their town was raided and their wives and children and possessions were stolen. David handled things. Though he was feeling the grief and the people talked to stoning him, he encouraged himself in the Lord. He didn’t let his circumstances and grief defeat him. He encouraged himself in the Lord, and so can we. He went to a stronghold. He went to a stronghold of protection.

At the heart of unhappiness, there’s the seeds of depression, disillusionment and discouragement. And that is what our country is feeling right now. Man, it’s going to be like really, really big depression for four years. Really? Disillusionment, discouragement. And the media is there to sew it all together, to give us plenty of thoughts. Let me tell you this. Let me tell you that pattern of thinking, that recurring pattern of thinking starts getting into us. Good Christians, it’s working on us and brick by brick Satan is going, “I’m gonna have me a batch of unhappy people, unhappy light bearers, unhappy Christians.” And just thought by thought, you linger on that thought by thought. You meditate on that, and it’s getting sewn together, and it’s coming at us all different ways, and it’s just building and building and building. And we’re ending up—I don’t know why it’s just so hard to be happy in the Christian life. Hey, it’s not a laughing matter. It’s a prison. It’s a prison. All humans are gonna be unhappy from time to time at some point. The problem is when we let unhappiness become our day-to-day battle. I was unhappy yesterday, and I’m unhappy today, and I think I’m just gonna if anybody says anything to me, I’ll be unhappy again. And I’m just gonna let it roll on into tomorrow and the next day and the next day. That’s a problem. We’re handing Satan a building permit, and he’s taking that every day, building a stronghold, a prison for you. And he’s so subtle about it.

The stronghold of unhappiness is, um, abiding and dissatisfaction with circumstances of your life. Hey, it’s one thing to be dissatisfied with the circumstance in your life. It’s another thing to abide in that day after day after day after day. Strongholds develop when we think about the abundant life being limited. So, when things are good, God is good. Well, praise God. But when life gets tough, we think somehow God doesn’t care. God always gives us what’s best, and we just don’t understand His purposes and His things, and His purpose for things.

But no matter what we can be sure one thing is that He will never hurt you. He will never hurt you. He loves you. He died for you. He spilled his blood for you. And something may be happening. Something right now that that’s breaking your heart. But it’s not to hurt you. We don’t really understand what He’s doing, but He knows what’s going on. It’s all part of His plan.

I’m not a scholar of history, but before the King James Bible came out, in England, there was a Catholic king in oppression and then a Protestant king, and then a Catholic king and Protestant king. And they kept switching back and forth, back and forth. And you know what that was doing? That was waking people up. There’ll be a king that would let the Bible free, put one in the church and appoint a reader so the people can hear it, and they were getting truth. And then there’ll be a king step in and take it all away. Restrict and oppress. You know what that did? Produced converts. Having something being taken away, appreciating it, having something being taken away, appreciating it. Our church building, all those years having it taken away, people appreciating. God knows what he’s doing. We don’t know what he’s doing.

An old story. There was an old farmer. He had a horse that ran away. His neighbors came. “Hey, man, I’m sorry to hear about your horse running away, and he says, I don’t know. I don’t know. It might not be such a bad thing.” A week later, the horse came back and brought her two horses with her. The neighbors come back. “Hey, I heard you got your horse back. That’s awesome.” And he goes, “Yeah, I don’t know, that might not be such a good thing.” And then his son started to break those horses, and he got thrown and he broke his arm. Neighbors come by. “Hey, I’m sorry to hear about your son.” He goes, “Yeah,  that might not be such a bad thing.” The war broke out, and all the able bodied men were drafted. This son didn’t have to go. See? My point is this: we don’t know what’s going on. Things may not be so bad. Things may not be so good. Truth is, we don’t know.

We’re looking at the bottom of a tapestry. It’s just a bunch of string and knots, and I don’t know why half this stuff is going on. I don’t see how God you know could allow it. Okay, but if we’ll follow Him, He’s gonna flip it over on us one day, and we’re gonna see that all of it was woven into something mind-blowing and beautiful. And He knew exactly what he was doing. He didn’t waste a tear. He didn’t pull anybody out of the game or put anybody into the game that He did not plan. And he would never hold anything good from us. And he never will. We have Romans 8 28. “All things work together for good to them that love God to them that are called according to his purpose.” But if we start attaching our happiness to our circumstances eventually we’re gonna have a hard time enjoying anything. Even the good things.

Remember wicked Haman? The king honored him above everybody else. He had riches. He had power. He had an Apple watch. He had prestige.  He was living the dream by most people’s standards. But he was unhappy. Why? That Mordecai. Every time on the way to work, he focused on one circumstance that wouldn’t bow in his life. We may not take it to that same extreme as Haman, but  it’s very easy to become trapped in prison. Negative thinking. It’s a nice sunny day today. Yeah, but there’s 20% chance of rain. And if we spend our day worrying about the rain that might fall, we’re sure to miss the sunshine that did fall.

A stronghold of unhappiness carries with it a feeling that God and others are not treating you the way you deserve. That’s one of the devil’s oldest attacks on mankind. It goes all the way back to the Garden. Eve ate the fruit because she was convinced that God was not treating them holding back, not treating them the way that they should. Maybe you feel like God’s holding back on you something—more money, possessions, attention. I don’t know. But God never cheats his kids, ever. He knows what’s best for us.

A stronghold of unhappiness comes when we start doubting God’s goodness in our life. God is good all the time. So where do you run when the hard times come? Prison or protection?

Sometimes we think the Bible heroes never had struggles, that they never struggled with the types of temptations that we have to face, but that’s just not the truth. Elijah suffered depression. David was anointed king, but hunted like a dog daily. And he faced all kinds of circumstances. Look at his thoughts. Psalm 13: “How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? 2. How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? 3. Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; 4. Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; And those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.”

That’s all the makings of a prison stronghold right there. Suicidal thoughts. Okay, but it didn’t end there. 5. “But I have trusted in thy mercy; My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. 6. I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.”

You know they say there’s all these stages to grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, blah, blah, blah. But we’re not supposed to stifle the way that we feel or fake it. David didn’t. He expressed how he felt. And it’s not wrong to tell God how you feel. The key to is to not allow a stronghold to form. And the way you do that is don’t let your thinking stick in any particular stage. It’s okay to let it out. Don’t fake it. But don’t stay stuck there or it’s gonna build. You’re gonna find yourself very unhappy one day, because day after day, if you’re wrestling with that unhappiness, you’re just building a prison. God can always get you out.

The most effective weapon, the most effective weapon you know against any stronghold is the Bible. Psalm 139:17–18 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! [18] If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: When I awake, I am still with thee.

I don’t know about you. I don’t pretend to understand what you’re walking through right now. I don’t know. I don’t know how God is going to make it work together for your good. I don’t know how COVID is affecting you. I don’t know how your life has changed. But I do know He has promised to work things for your good if you’ll let him. God is always there, and He’s always in control. And He’ll always take care of you. Can I encourage you to look to Him when you start having recurring thoughts and you sense they’re not right? You need to express them. But you need to get out of that channel.

Don’t let the devil start sewing them together, because it starts as a toehold. It’s easy. I’d like to stop thinking about this anytime I want. Yeah. Then it becomes more reoccurring when he gets enough of them sewn together, becomes a foothold. Then it becomes a stronghold. Then it becomes a stranglehold.  The battle is raging all around us. There’s POWs everywhere. Unhappy imprisoned Christians are not going to reach this world. We’re not gonna do what we ought to do if we’re in a prison.

So, what’s it gonna be for you? Stronghold or strong tower? It’s gonna be prison or protection. Just like the walls of Jericho came crumbling down, so the devil’s strongholds, when we use the weapons God has given us, will come crumbling down as well.

Let’s pray. Maybe you’re here tonight or you’re listening online, and you can say, “I’ve run to that stronghold of protection. The protection of the red shed, Blood of Jesus. My eternity is safe and secure in the hands of God right now. And I know that I am protected.” Maybe you’re here tonight and you’re listening online, and you feel like you’re in a prison of fear and insecurity about eternity. When the subject comes up, you don’t know if you died today that you would go to Heaven. You hope for the best but just can’t seem to overcome your fear for the worst. Only Jesus can let you out of that prison.