Warfare of Our Minds
Reading: Philippians 4:8-9
Craig Groeschel has written and spoken on the topic of the way we think in a series called Words to Live By. In this series, he gives the following quote: “our lives move in the direction of our strongest thoughts”. It didn’t take much thought for me to come to the conclusion that I agree wholeheartedly with that statement! This made me think about what I think about, and once I discovered that my inner dialogue consists mainly of selfish or critical thought, it made sense why my relationships with God and with other people were not where I wanted them to be.
The thing is, our thought patterns become so habitual that it is hard sometimes even to notice when we are not thinking on things that are true, honourable, right, pure, lovely or admirable (v8), let alone correct those thought patterns!! Luckily, our God is greater than human habit, thought patterns and, sometimes, the lies that Satan tempts us to believe.
By asking for His help and relying on the life-changing presence of the Holy Spirit, we can win this battle and do as we are told in this scripture. We can also arm ourselves with this scripture as a weapon in the warfare of our minds, to meditate on when those old habits seem to gain power over us again. As we remember this scripture, we can remember that the only one who is true, honourable, right, pure and lovely is God and we begin to think on Him! We then choose Him consciously (which is a good conscious decision to make first thing as we wake up) and find our minds renewed.
Alix Taylor
