Winning The Battle Of The Mind

Think about your thoughts.


What a great way to start the week. Thinking about thinking.


But seriously, think about your thoughts already today. Are they God-honoring thoughts? Are they kind of neutral, just basic thoughts? Are they negative or destructive thoughts? Maybe they're a combination of all three?


Different types of thoughts hit different areas of our lives, either helping or hurting our spiritual growth. Think of it like a traffic light:

Red: thoughts that tear you down from the inside out

Yellow: thoughts that are just thoughts, not good or bad, just there

Green: thoughts that build you up and encourage you


Your thoughts determine your direction, your actions, your attitude, your mood. What kinds of thoughts are in your center? Which ones are taking up the most space? How do those thoughts affect how you live?


Deep questions for the first day of the week, right? But God cares about what's going on in your mind, just like He cares about all of you and your life. That's why He gives us the example of Jesus battling Satan's attack on His mind when He was physically weak.


Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. Matthew 4:1-11


Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness. While He was physically low, Satan came and tried to get inside His mind by twisting Scripture, appealing to His power, and tempting Him to take shortcuts. It's the same cheap tactic He's been using all along.


Each time, Jesus didn’t argue emotionally, which would have been easy in the moment. Instead He responded with Scripture. That’s how He won the battle.


If our minds are filled with Scripture because we've been reading every day, it will be there when we need it most. Just like the enemy targeted Jesus' mind and identity, he tries to hit us where we're most vulnerable, too. 


We can't control what thoughts show up, but we can control which ones stay. Scripture is our best weapon in this battle of the mind. So let's arm ourselves to the teeth - there are no excuses when we understand the battle plans!


If we try to fight thoughts on our own, under our own power, we’ll just get exhausted and never win. But using God’s power and God’s word, we don’t have to fight the battle ourselves, we let God handle it for us. Now that's a battle plan. 


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