Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life

by Craig Groeschel

I don’t know about you, but when the Bible and modern psychology say the same thing, I want to know more. TIME TO CHANGE YOUR MIND?

Understand this: Satan is your enemy, and every day he is prowling around (1 Peter 5:8), watching you, looking for a place where you might believe a lie. If you succeed at something, maybe he can convince you that you don’t need God. If you fail, he’ll try to brainwash you into thinking you’ll always be a failure. You have a great first date? He’ll suggest romance is the only thing that will make you happy. First date was a disaster? He’ll whisper that you’ll never have anyone love you for who you are. If you do a nice thing for a difficult person, he’ll murmur that you’re a pretty great person yourself and really don’t need God’s grace. If instead you speak harshly to someone, he’ll whisper that you’re an awful, hateful person whom God could never love.

For centuries people believed the world was flat. (Some still do. Don’t believe me? Google it. You’ll find there are “Flat Earthers” today.)

encouragement: anything you change in your life can affect future generations and alter the course of your family line for Christ.

Think about some of the worst circumstances you’ve had to go through. You never would have chosen them, and maybe you prayed God would pull you out of them, but didn’t they help you grow in ways that are crucial to who you are today?

overscheduled, overstretched, and overworked. During that summer, I preached twenty-five messages in eight days in five cities in two countries.

Your brain is rewiring itself all the time by creating those new neural pathways. Each time you think a thought, it’s easier to think that thought again. That’s good news if you’re thinking godly thoughts.

While everything seemed negative, Paul chose to see the positive. Paul was looking not at it but through it. He was seeing the image God wanted him to see that others couldn’t. That’s why, as he continued the letter, he wrote, “The Lord is near” (Phil. 4:5) and, “Do not be anxious about anything” (v. 6) and, “The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ