Ever since the introduction of email, Spam has been a huge issue for Internet users.

According to statistics, spam accounts for 14.5 billion messages per day, making up about 45% of all emails.

Of all spam messages, advertising make up a whooping 36% followed by adult- related subjects which makes up about 31%. Coming up third is unwanted emails related to financial matters, which takes about 26.5%.

Spam is a huge problem for which there is no single remedy.  In spite of spam blockers and anti-spam software available in the market, it is virtually impossible to eradicate spam completely.

As Christians, we deal with spiritual spam in a different way. While email spam is virtual and sent to our email box, spiritual spam is sent into our minds where it is processed and eventually stored in our heart.  It is far more intrusive and far more difficult to avoid compared to email spam.



Unlike email spam, which comes from different sources, spiritual spam comes from only one source and Author,  Satan. The messages are however disseminated through various mediums.  Dealing with these messages may be easy, difficult or impossible, depending on how we attempt to deal with them.

What is this spiritual spam being referred to here? They are thoughts that continually invade our minds and have the ability to distract us from what God has called us to be.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” (Proverbs 4:23)

The above scripture brings our attention to the fact that everything we do is influenced by what we give room to in our hearts.

“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”  (Luke 6:45)

Are you like the good man with a heart filled with good things? Do you have some storage filled with evil things as well? Like email spam, it is just a matter of time before the junk messages fill everywhere to the extent that there will no longer be any room for the good treasures.

Unlike spam whose existence is as recent as the coming of the Internet, the ‘spam’ of the mind is almost as old as creation.

How did the serpent succeed in causing the fall of man? All he needed to do was send a replica of the modern day spam message to the woman, giving her reasons why she should ignore God’s command and eat the fruit of the garden.

What was her response? Rather than delete the ‘spam’ and focus on the good and positive message from God, she got distracted. She processed the serpent’s message in her mind and became  persuaded  and got not only herself but her husband involved in what would lead to the a sentence of death and judgment to all mankind.

I have trained my email box to detect spam messages and route them to my spam folder, which I empty periodically.   How do we deal with what I call ‘Spam Thoughts?’

The scripture as always, gives us a solution to this difficult problem.
“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10: 4-5)

First, we have to acknowledge that we cannot fight this battle by ourselves.  Every day we are assaulted with all kinds of messages, not only in emails but through other media as well.  Although we cannot avoid them, we can fight them through the power of God.

No matter how spiritual you are; it does not matter whether you are a Pastor or a Christian of many years; you are vulnerable to negative thoughts. The problem is not with having those thoughts; the important thing is what we do with it. Do you trash the thoughts immediately and fill your mind with good things or do you give room for the thoughts to fester and eventually influence the way you act?

One of the verses of scripture that has helped me over the years has been Philippians 4:8;
“Finally, brothers and sisters, 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.”

Having trouble dealing with wrong thoughts?  Train your mind to store God’s word and when a thought that does not conform with God’s word hits you, send it to the recycle bin and trash it!


Steve Popoola is the editor of Biblepraise Newsletter and the founder of  the Biblepraise Fellowship Online at  http://www.biblepraise.org. He lives in Kent, United Kingdom, where he works as an IT Professional. He currently serves as a Worship Leader, Home Group Leader and Bible Teacher  in his local church. He also speaks at invited events. He can be reached through His email address,  steve@biblepraise.org