Your Mind Matters

By Hailee Meals

A couple of years ago, I walked in the kitchen to find my 3 year old son standing there with a very sharp knife! God only knows how he managed to reach one.... and I immediately snatched the knife away from him. This felt like a major “mom-fail” moment, but the moment didn’t end there for me. While my son is happily running away to play, the thoughts crept in... “I am a bad mom. What if he would have killed himself? What did I do wrong?”

I have caught small thoughts like this start to manifest as I dwell on them. I started to become worried and anxious about the health of my child and protecting him. I began to get angry with him anytime he is in perceived “danger.” At my wits end, I sat down with God and asked “Why am I going crazy over this child?”

God has a way of unraveling us, doesn’t He? I prayed and told God all about this huge “anxiety snowball.” God revealed to me that I was wanting too much control and it originated from the first thought that I “let go” too long when seeing my child with a knife in his hand. My pride had taken over my parenting. I was thinking I could control my child’s health and life. I knew God had placed me in his life as his mother. However, I let the good thing (mothering) turn into a bad thing (trying time and time again to control my world) and it all started in my mind.

God is teaching me that I don’t just have thoughts. The thoughts that I choose to think (believe) lead me in one of two directions, I either go towards Him or towards my fleshly desires. Romans 8:6-9 says “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the fleshbut in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you...”

Our minds fuel our heart which will, in turn, become sin. When we have a thought, it does not mean we have to commit to it and believe that thought is truth. In 2 Corinthians 10:5, we are told to take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. This means when I have a thought that wantsto fuel my heart, I don’t have to think it! We do not have to believe that thought as truth! Our enemy comes only to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). Satan is on the prowl like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8) and he will tempt us starting in our mind. If we take these thoughts and make them obedient to Christ, we are resisting the devil and he must flee (James 4:7).

So how can we put the “God filter” on our thoughts?

One thing our military is trained to do is capture or avoid their enemies before they can destroy them. How do they do this? It begins in training. First, they acknowledge that a war is happening. Secondly, they have to work tirelessly to train their bodies and minds to fight the inevitable battle. They have to have weapons of warfare specifically for their enemy. How would they protect themselves and their country without knowledge of enemy tactics and knowing what the enemy looks like?

Similarly, we are in an inevitable war. “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as theworld does. The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world.” (2 Cor. 10:3-5) “Our struggle

is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.” (Ephesians 6:12)

The first thing we have to acknowledge is that you cannot capture a thought and take it captive without first identifying there is a war! You need to know who your enemy is and his tactics. You also need weapons of warfare. The best way to do this is to be in constant communication with our Commander-in-Chief, God! You do this through the reading of his word and prayer. Can you imagine a soldier going to battle without communicating with his/her Commander-in- Chief or looking at the plan for war? They would fail miserably, costing lives.

Our God didn’t leave us without weapons to fight this war. Praise God that our Commander-in- Chief equips us with his Holy Spirit who strengthens us and gives us wisdom!

Ephesians 6:13-18 also tells us about the armor of God. “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the

Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

Our God equips us to stand firm against our enemy as long as we “put on” his armor. We have to actively put on our armor and we just stand firm. We put on by filling our minds with truth from scripture, prayer, and worship. Then, we stand firm. Standing firm does not look like filling our minds with fear, anxiety, slander, lust, pride, and our hearts being directed towards the enemy! Paul tells us that the flesh is hostile to God and cannot please Him. We need to guard our minds knowing the enemy is prowling.

Instead, we will fill our minds and hearts with Philippians 4:8, ” Whatever is true, noble, whatever isright, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or worthy of praise- think about such things.” We need to let our hearts be directed back to the creator of all these things, Yahweh! The Holy Spirit will remind us of Jesus and what He did for us when dying onthe cross so that we didn’t have to fight the war alone. Jesus took our place in death and sin so we can be free from the slavery of sin that causes death. We will have life after death, just like Jesus!

So, we praise God in spite of the spiritual war inside us and around us. We praise God in spite of our circumstances. We praise God for who He is and that He never changes. Psalm 8:2 says “Through the praises of children and infants you have established strongholds against your enemies, tosilence the foe and avenger.” I love how is says our praises silence the foe and avenger. The voice of the foe in our minds can be silenced in our praises!

We will praise and stand firm. We will take captive the thoughts that the foe implants in our minds by “putting on” our armor. We will stay in communication with our Commander-in Chief and we will do war!