Have you ever heard the phrase “living rent free in your head?” It's what people say when something takes up way too much space in their thoughts without adding any value.

For example, when you keep replaying an awkward conversation and obsessing—what should I have said? How else could that have gone? Maybe you text your best friend and invite them to overthink with you and analyze someone’s facial expressions or what they really meant. Wearily, that friend may ask you ‘why are you letting this live rent free in your head?’

Or, more simply, maybe your team lost a big game and three days later you’re still grumbling about that bad ref call—you’re letting it “live rent free.”

I had such an experience a few days ago. I went to bed replaying a situation over and over, wondering if I could’ve changed the outcome. I’ve also wrestled with frustrating thoughts about things that I can’t change at all. I told my husband that I knew I was wrong to keep obsessing, but I just couldn’t seem to break the spiral of my mind. I was letting these thoughts “live rent free” in my mind and drag down my whole day.

And that's exactly where Satan wants me.

If my thoughts are consumed with frustrations, I'm not thanking God. If I am overwhelmed with worry, I'm not praising God. And if I am filled with bitterness and have an unforgiving heart, I'm not walking in the Spirit.

Satan loves it when we are filled with anything that would distract us and keep our minds off of Jesus Christ. I need to evict these “rent free” thoughts, and I have a great example from Scripture on just how to accomplish this.

In Nehemiah 13, after the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt, Nehemiah had to leave for Babylon. While he was gone, Eliashib the priest became allied to Tobiah. Tobiah! A man who had conspired to fight against Jerusalem and frustrate the work of rebuilding... was now allied with the priest?

Not only had Eliashib and Tobiah become friends in Nehemiah’s absence, but Eliashib had “prepared for him a great chamber” in the house of God. He allowed him to move in to the very place where they had stored up provisions for the priests. Eliashib was quite literally allowing Tobiah to live rent free in the temple.

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? —1 Corinthians 6:19

When we accept Christ as our Savior, the Holy Spirit moves into our hearts. And as a saved child of God, we are called to walk in the Spirit. Unfortunately, as Paul so often mentions, we still have to live in our flesh.

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. —Galatians 5:17

Our flesh is contrary to the Spirit and still responds to Satan’s whispers. Like Eliashib, our flesh can be allied with the Devil. If we aren’t vigilant, Satan will set up house in our thoughts, causing us to obsess and worry over the slightest things. In time, all the good things of God can get shoved out, the way Eliashib tossed out the priest’s provisions to make room for Tobiah.

Slowly, Satan moves in a couch of discontentment here, adds a rocking chair of worry there, hauls in a table of bitterness. Carnal “furniture” that grieves the Holy Spirit according to Ephesians 4:30-31.

And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: —Ephesians 4:30-31

So what did Nehemiah do when he returned to Jerusalem and learned there was a squatter in the temple? He threw Tobiah out! When Nehemiah discovered what Eliashib had done, it grieved him and he “cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber.” (Nehemiah 13:8) It was eviction day! Not only did he move Tobiah out to the curb, but Nehemiah cleaned up the room and brought back in “the vessels of the house of God” with the offerings and frankincense.

This is similar to what Paul calls us to do in our thought life. 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us to "cast[] down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bring[] into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;"

These thoughts, though they feel like a simple worry, frustration or personality conflict, are not in line with the truth of God. Why should I worry and obsess over something when I can’t see the whole picture? Why should I allow my limited perspective to exalt itself against the infinite knowledge of God? There is nothing to be gained by replaying these thoughts in my head and they must be dealt with severely. I can’t politely ask them to leave, or learn to live with them. I must evict them!

When I sense that Tobiah (Satan) is living rent free in my head, I need to stop, identify the thoughts, and terminate the tenancy the way Nehemiah kicked out Tobiah. I should cast down the imaginations, lies, bitterness or anger and then refill the room with thanksgiving, Scripture, prayer, and praise.

The phrase “living rent free” is meant as a joke, but spiritually this is no laughing matter. We don’t have to allow Satan to set up his furniture and move in rent free. We can refuse to replay conversations, rehearse frustrations, or dwell on bitterness. Doing so will only crowd out joy and thanksgiving. The Lord purchased this temple with His precious blood—why give Tobiah any room? Let’s put away, cast down, and clear out all that would grieve the Holy Spirit.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. —Colossians 3:16

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