Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table: It's Time to Win the Battle of Your Mind...

by Louie Giglio

You don’t have to tell your side of the story; time will.

Don’t give the Enemy a seat at your table.

I pushed aside my annoyance and let the message sink in. Quickly I saw that my friend had nailed it. I had allowed my adversary—the Devil—to influence the conversation inside my mind.

My struggle wasn’t about fighting with people. People were involved, but the battle I was facing was against principalities and powers of darkness (Ephesians 6:12). My heavenly Father wasn’t making me afraid or paranoid. My Shepherd wasn’t putting thoughts of despair in my mind. The harmful thoughts were coming from someone else. T...

As negative thoughts would enter my mind, I’d say to myself, Don’t give the Enemy a seat. Don’t entertain his ideas. These thoughts are not from a good and trustworthy Shepherd. Move on.

I could see myself sitting at a table, with the Good Shepherd across from me. He had led me through dark valleys to reach the table, and I didn’t need to be afraid, even though the fiery trials weren’t all resolved. My place at the table didn’t mean that my enemies would be removed from the equation. In fact, the table was set right in the middle of my enemies.

I didn’t need to vindicate myself. I didn’t need to clear my name. I didn’t need to control this equation or work overtime to improve it. My task was to concentrate on the Good Shepherd, the One who owned the table.

My invitation was to put my trust in the One who prompted me to lie down in green pastures, the One who led me beside quiet waters and restored my soul. The Good Shepherd was guiding me along the right paths for His name’s sake. Dark valleys and hard times were part of those paths, yet He would be with me and see me through every threatening night. The Good Shepherd would anoint my life with His favor and my cup would overflow. My promise—goodness, mercy, and love—would escort me every single day of my life. My destiny was set. I d...

From 1 Peter 5:8, I knew that a major tactic of the Devil was to prowl around my life. So maybe I couldn’t stop the Devil from prowling around my table, but in Jesus’ name I definitely did have the choice whether I allowed the Enemy to sit down.

But it wasn’t about a potentially gimmicky illustration. The landslide of power was the realization that the King of the universe is inviting you and me to sit with Him at His table.

The table He’s prepared for you is one of peace, clarity, and abundance. You don’t have to give the Enemy a seat at your table.

I’ll address the lies the Enemy feeds you as he weasels his way into a seat at the table that’s intended for you and your King.

The Devil wants nothing more than to crush you. He wants to steal from you everything you value. He wants to kill everything in your life that’s good. Ultimately, he wants to destroy you. If he can claim the victory over your mind, he can eventually claim the victory over your life.

When it comes to not giving the Enemy a seat at your table, we have to start by wrapping our minds around this difficult truth: life is hard, yet Jesus invites us to follow Him anyway.

I will still be joyful and glad, because the LORD God is my savior. (Habakkuk 3:17–18 GNT)

have not lost my faith. In fact, my faith is even greater. I’m still going to rejoice in the Lord. I’m still going to worship God. I’m not going to get sidetracked by attitudes or actions that harm me. When I encounter hard times, my faith inflates.”

Even though bad things happen, I will still praise the Lord. Even though bad things happen, I will not let my mind be lost to the Enemy.

And in Psalm 23, the attributes and actions of the Shepherd-God are true of the Shepherd-Jesus. We know this because Hebrews 13:8 states plainly that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Here’s the incredible invitation: Jesus is saying, I want to be your Good Shepherd. He is a personal, involved God who wants to shepherd your life. Can we just stop and breathe in this reality? The Good Shepherd, who also happens to be God, is offering to lead you through every moment of your life! The key for us, then, is that we allow Jesus to shepherd us. See, all of us are shepherded whether we realize it or not. Your shepherd might not be Jesus. But something is going to lead you. Second Peter 2:19 says, “People are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”

When you allow Jesus to be your Shepherd, He steps into this stressed-out culture and becomes your replenishing guide. He leads you, watches over you, and gives you rest. Jesus gives you purpose. He shows you how to deal with your enemies so they don’t tear you apart inside. Jesus gives you a hope and a future, and He’ll restore your soul. He’ll give you goodness and love for today, for tomorrow, and for every day for the rest of your life. Jesus will even give you an eternity with Him in paradise.

In a word, the Good Shepherd is . . . good. Because of His great love for us, Jesus always acts with our ultimate well-being in mind. The goodness of God can be found in all He is and says and does.

I want us to focus on because these verses point us to the “even though” type of faith I’ve mentioned. When we develop this kind of faith, it helps change our lives for good. In Psalm 23:4 we find these words, and they set up the context of the verses to come: “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil.” Did you see the “even though / I will” in that famous verse? It’s amazing that the Good Shepherd walks with us right through the valley of the shadow of death. God is there with us through real hardship.

How can you honestly say you’re not afraid? The answer is shown in the second part of verse 4. We won’t solve all the problems around us. We don’t avoid every difficulty that comes our way. Yet we don’t need to fear any evil, because the Good Shepherd is with us.

God, I’m in a storm—help me. Instead, you pray, God, I’m in a storm. Thank You for being in this storm with me. You’ve got my back. How are we going to get through this together?