Abiding in the Prince of Peace | How to Win Your Mental War Sample

Renew Your Mind 

Another weapon to win the battle of the mind is what I call sanctifying the imagination for God's purposes. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, it talks about casting out arguments and any thinking that stands in opposition to the knowledge of God. It tells us that we must captivate or capture our thought process, recognize if it is worldly and fleshly or from God, and then either cast it out or digest it. This looks pretty daunting and overwhelming at first glance. This is contrary to the way you have lived most of your life. However, it will open the floodgates to a healthy, peaceful mind when you learn this simple tool. 

You can minimize a lot of this effort by simply removing specific ungodly influences from your life. If you don't put clear unhealthy images and influences before your eyes, you have less to try and renew. 

Years ago, I met with a woman who was dealing with crippling fear. She struggled many days a week and was in depression. I asked a lot of questions about what her daily mental consumption consisted of. She was very open that she was a 24-hour news junky. She always had major news networks on in her home, and many times the simple world news was so negative that it caused her stress and anxiety. Added to that, she loved horror movies. She loved the thrill of being scared but did not realize that subconsciously these movies were a running narrative in her mind that was crippling her with fear. When I simply pointed out that a lot of her mental diet consisted of worldly things that the Bible warns us to minimize in our lives, she was surprised. She discovered that what she was consuming mentally was the source of her issues. She could not possibly obey the command to take every thought captive because she was consuming so much at a high rate. She made some simple changes and stopped watching the majority of what she had. She found that her stress and anxiety were almost nonexistent in a short period, and the depression was a distant memory. Although this may not be the quick fix for every situation, I do think it's a step in the right direction for anyone willing to take this seriously. I know because the Bible says it. 

A simple example to clarify this point is our physical bodies and the food we consume. If you have read my book, Abiding in Physical Health, you have seen how unhealthy the average American diet is. We consume horrible foods for our bodies and ask God to magically bless the food as nourishment. Not only does this not make natural or spiritual sense, but many times we pay a high price with physical sickness and disease. When you put unhealthy foods into your body, the body's natural processes are hindered, or you will have to work harder to digest and pull out the nutrients needed for health. If you never consume foods with the required nutrients, your body will be malnourished simply because you have not given it what it needs to thrive. 

What if we simply captivated what we allow into our bodies and mostly ate things that we know fuel and give life? Our bodies would struggle less to have to filter out the bad and keep the good. Our bodies would typically respond with health. It’s not that most people don’t know this, but we are undisciplined and don’t want to make the changes. 

It's the same with the renewing of our minds. We consume large quantities of emotional junk food and then ask God to magically bless it and make it healthy for our souls. We cry out to God for peace and then clog up our mental filter with more junk that only feeds our anxiety and fear. Once you know these truths, putting them into practice is where the difficulty comes. One thing you can start today is not allowing unexamined thoughts or emotions to write your story. Learn to recognize and define the source of your anxiety and fear.  

Take Away:

Here is a list of some simple questions that can help you identify the source of your stress and anxiety that wars against your peace: 

• What information am I allowing into the gateway of my soul?  

• Where am I getting my information from?  

• What lies am I believing?  

• What truth from God’s word am I replacing those lies with?  

• Do I have accountability outside my own brain?