What we think determines how we feel and what we feel influences our actions.  A negative action if often the result of negative thinking.  Understandably, if Satan can negatively influence our thinking then temptations to act negatively will be harder for us to resist. (p. 15, Fiery Darts: Satan’s Weapon of Choice)

Our mind is one of Satan’s most successful battlefields.  If he can plant a negative seed of thought there, it has the potential to grow and produce unholy fruit.  I use the word potential because whether or not we allow this negative thought to enter our mind and put down roots is up to us.  You see, we have the means and the power (by the grace of God) to block that negative thought from becoming planted into our mind!

So how do we do that?

You have to be able to recognize a fiery dart thought.

That’s not as easy as you might think.  Consider all the confusing thoughts running rampant in our society today.  Ideas that in the not so distant past would have been considered insane, yet today are touted as normal. They are so cleverly presented that even some Christians become deceived and begin to justify actions that years ago were clearly identified as sin.

So why can’t we see the fiery darts that are staring right at us?

May I offer what I believe is the unarguable answer to the above question with a quote from Noah Webster (you know – Webster’s Dictionary) way back in the 1800’s, “All of the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from them despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.”

The plain and simple truth is that we don’t know our Bible!  That’s it folks!  Satan’s had it figured out for quite some time.

What does Satan know that we don’t?   If we don’t know what God says on a particular subject, then we become vulnerable to all sorts of ungodly persuasions.

A- KEEPING US OUT OF GOD’S WORD IS SATAN’S NUMBER ONE FIERY DART!

and 

B-THE NUMBER TWO FIERY DART IS TO WEAKEN OUR COMMUNICATION WITH GOD!

A + B = C

C- My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; 

Hosea 4:6

Hey, but that’s not the end of the story or doesn’t have to be the end of the story.  How do I know that?

Because in a letter to the Exiles God said this:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jer 29:11  

So what do we need to do so that we can avoid being deceived by Satan’s clever fiery darts and loose the battle that going on in our minds?

READ THE BIBLE AND COMMUNICATE WITH GOD REGULARLY!!!!!!!

You see, as we study our Bible, our ability to recognize fiery darts intensifies because we will be made aware of what God has to say about the ideas, issues, and problems we encounter.  We won’t be so easily deceived by ideas and philosophies that run contrary to God’s Word.

Come on folks, I’ve read the last chapter in the Bible and WE WIN!  Don’t wait until you get to the end of your struggles only to say, “Man, I wish I’d known that!”