We all want to know that Gods desire is to us, but never give the slightest thought to where our desire should be. We desire all of the physical comforts of the flesh; money, prestige, and such, and will go to any lengths to acquire these things, yet the things which God wants for us we deem not worthy to wipe our feet on. Since our mind is set on things below, and the Word only speaks of things which are above, then we do not even care about what He has to say, much less hear Him.
The mind is not unlike a garden in this one respect only. You do not have to do anything in the garden or mind for weeds to completely take it over and grow in profusion. The "weeds" in the mind, of course, is pride, fear, rage, vanity, lust, etc..
If you want flowers or vegetables to grow in the garden, then till the soil and plant the seeds of that which you desire to grow. Do you want peace? Then plant the seeds of peace. Do you want faith? Then the seeds of faith will have to be planted.
The garden of the mind or heart is not like the literal garden in this respect. In a literal garden, weeds will crowd the flowers or vegetables out, whereas in the mind and heart, forget the weeds. The plants of peace, joy, faith, kindness, etc, will crowd out the weeds of pride and such.
As Philippians 4:8 says; "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Let us go over these things again; true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtue, and praise. Plant these seeds in your mind, and see what beautiful fruit they bring forth. Then you will hear the Word of the Lord.
Let us consider one very good example. In your own mind you have done the best you know how to do, and have not done anything wrong. Yet someone else criticizes you in a certain matter, even to the point of calling you names in a derogatory sense. Suddenly you feel anger, even rage boiling up inside of you, and you want to "bust his head". He did not put that rage there, but he did bring it out.
That rage could have been buried there for years, causing you problems you were not even aware of. You simply could not imagine why everything always went wrong for you. Now, you have a choice here. Do you rant and rave back at him, vindicate yourself by putting him down, or do you become thankful yourself to him for uncovering all that "garbage" you were not even aware of?
For the sake of understanding, let us suppose that John Doe really resents Joe Blow. The resentment in John has absolutely no effect on Joe whatsoever. Yet that resentment that John holds for Joe will eventually destroy John, by coming out of him in the form of an illness of some sort, even to the point of causing Johns physical death if it is in the extreme. It is as though John has made some kind of god out of Joe and is willing to sacrifice himself for Joe.
It would have been much better for John if he had practiced a little out flowing love for Joe and used a bit of understanding about the frustration in Joe that caused him to do whatever it was that John resented him for.
Even when we know this, and are consciously aware of these facts, we feel suddenly enlightened, and we walk around just fine for awhile, not wanting to hurt a fly. But then we get distracted again in our daily lives and say someone cuts us off in traffic and we find ourselves right in the same position again of bitterness.
It's not that you fell prey to any kind of external force, it's that the problem within you wasn't totally taken care of in the first place. It can only be accomplished by conscious effort and practice. Not repressing bad feelings or pushing them down, but by nurturing the good ones and positive thoughts.