Overcome the battle of the mind

Paul knew from experience that the vicious, intense and unrelenting battle for sin always starts in the mind. He talks about this in Romans 7, saying, “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want to do this I keep on doing. What a wretched man that I am!” (Rom 7:19,24).

This passionate battle in our mind can be prompted by resentment, anger, fear, guilt, insecurity, selfpity, and so on.

As a result, we engage in boxing; throwing punches of hatred, anger and judgmentalism.

We may even enjoy lustful thoughts, drawing narcissistic pleasure from the fantasy of the mind. Our mind becomes the judge, jury, and executioner, and yet we wonder why our life is ineffective.

The solution to the battle of the mind is the peace of God which transcends all understanding, and guards our heart and mind (Phil. 4:6).

When we abide in Christ and His word abides in us, we can hear God speak to us daily. As we meditate on God’s love for us and on His word, our heart and mind is flooded with the peace of God. Nothing can rob us of God’s presence, peace, and power to live victoriously in the joy of the Lord.

Begin overcoming the battle of the mind in the area of judgmentalism; be it against our spouses, family members, neighbours or society at large. We need to get reconciled. Recently at a conference, a Christian witnessed the tragedy of his family members being beaten and some gunned down for their faith in Jesus Christ.

An interviewer asked him, ‘Why don’t you also pick up arms?’ The response was, ‘I have two arms: love and forgiveness.’ We too can overcome the battle of the mind by God’s love and grace, as we know and live according to God’s Word.