If it feels like a battle is happening in your mind, you aren’t alone.
That’s the human condition. Sin devastates--even the mind.
Three thoughts--from a pastor who cares about you--about that.
#1 Winning the battle is crucial.
Your mind is where you form your thoughts. Your thoughts are the source of your actions. Your actions shape your destiny. The stakes aren’t small.
#2 You have an enemy who doesn’t want you to win.
Scripture calls the devil and his ilk the “accuser of the brothers and sisters,” (Revelation 12:10) “the father of lies”. (John 8:44) Condemnation, blame, and shame are the key weapons, a plant from the enemy of your soul. Satan is the ultimate gaslighter, throwing accusations into your mind, then blaming you for having the thought!
#3 You need a repeatable pattern to win the battle.
Paul calls this “taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5)
Here is the pattern I’m using to win (it’s from Sunday’s message, (Winning the battle in your mind). If you’re looking for a 15-second fix, this isn’t it, but no genuinely helpful pattern is instant. It is a 5-10-minute pattern, and if your thoughts plague you, isn’t 5-10 minutes worth your investment to find help from God?
T.A.K.E.
T – Take inventory of where the thought comes from.
You (questions, confusions, anxieties, curiosities)?
The Holy Spirit, who always leads you to the fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5)?
The enemy who blames, shames, and condemns?
Name it out loud.
A – Accept only what’s in line with Scripture
Apply Scripture to the thought. It becomes your filter for what’s a lie and what leads to life. Shout it out loud at the enemy. Announce it out loud to your soul. Scripture is a weapon to win this battle, Paul says (“the sword of the Spirit,” Ephesians 6) “I am no longer a slave to fear.” “Holy Spirit, you are leading me to patience.” “Cast all your anxieties on Jesus, soul; he cares for you.”
K – Kneel
This is where you pray, taking that thought, that emotion, that feeling to God. Imagine the person being given to Jesus, the problem being put in a jar, the junk being thrown in a trash can. This is Jesus, who "ever lives to intercede for you" (Hebrews 7:25), you're talking to. And when we pray, Paul says the Spirit interprets our feeble words to God. (see Romans 8:26)
E – Exit the hopeless story for the hope story of the Gospel.
This is where you receive what Christ won for you on the cross. His resurrection victory over the power of sin and accusation and hate and defeat. Receive it, out loud. “I am more than a conqueror through him who loved me! Thought, you now belong to Christ who always wins.”
For you,
Scott Marshall, Wichita First Church of the Nazarene