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

by Louie Giglio

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.

task was to concentrate on the Good Shepherd, the One who owned the table.

My destiny was set. I didn’t need to be afraid. The Shepherd was at the table, and He would see to it that I was going to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

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.

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.

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.

Even though the fig trees have no fruit and no grapes grow on the vines, even though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no grain, even though the sheep all die and the cattle stalls are empty, I will still be joyful and glad, because the LORD God is my savior. (Habakkuk 3:17–18 GNT)

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. That’s the kind of faith I see in Jay and Katherine

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.

God has prepared a table right in the middle of the battle. That table is laden with the richest of fare—and it’s all good food for us to eat—yet that table is set right in the midst of the chemo ward.

The smallest window of doubt or uncertainty. Just like that, the Devil is sitting at your table, beginning to win the battle for your mind.

we accept the false narrative about our lives that we aren’t worth much to God .

Or we flip to the other point of view. We think we deserve more, so we allow envy and greed and comparison to cannibalize our God-given identity.

In Jesus’ name we don’t have to give in to sinful desires; we can win the battle for our minds. Thanks to Jesus, we are no longer slaves. We are set free. We are alive. We are children of God.

Whenever we camp in the valley and stay there, focused on the difficulties in our lives, we are prompted by the Enemy to go another direction.

the Devil takes the form of someone who’s helpful, someone who appears to have your best interest at heart, someone who offers you respite from whatever pain you’re feeling.

the Devil can take anything the body naturally desires and use it to harm us—that’s the lust of the flesh at work. The Devil can use anything we see and wish for as part of his trap to lead us toward destruction—that’s the lust of the eyes. The pride of life, in this case, is a harmful sort of bragging or boasting or showmanship or ambition that causes us to have too much confidence in ourselves.

humility is not thinking less of yourself; humility is thinking of yourself less. We easily get these confused by thinking it honors

No matter what you’ve accomplished, or how much truth from God’s Word you’ve heard over the years, you just don’t believe you’re enough.

the “not enough” anthem was composed in the pit of hell. It’s crippling. Debilitating. Paralyzing. Suffocating. It didn’t come from the Good Shepherd. If you’re hearing it and repeating it, there must be an Enemy at your table.

THE HOLY ONE INVITED YOU HERE. BOOKED THE TABLE. PREPARED THE MEAL. SAT DOWN TO JOIN YOU. AND THIS RESERVATION COST HIM EVERYTHING.

He’s the Lord of all creation. All strength and power and authority belong to Him. He’s King of the universe. When God is walking you through the valley, you can stop worrying about managing all the outcomes.

The truth that God is for you and not against you matters greatly.

The Enemy convinces you there’s nowhere to turn. Nowhere to run. No way forward. No chance you’re ever going to live free again. The consequences of your bad decisions are closing in from one side,

Scripture is clear that nothing separates you from God’s love (Romans 8:38–39), yet followers of Christ can still grow distant from God if they so choose. If the Devil sits at your table, sin can fill your mind and sour your conscience and ruin the intimate harmony you enjoy with the Lord.

Here’s the fact: the thought itself falls short of the glory of God. When we entertain it, the thought muddies our relationship with the Lord. The thought itself occupies our mind and has the power to knock us off course.

Far too often we let him accuse us. We know we’ve done wrong, so we just mumble our agreement right along with the Enemy.

Condemnation is done from a posture of hate. Conviction is done from a posture of love.

If you feel the need to pivot in your thought life, you’re feeling the need for repentance, and that prompt is from God. God longs to restore you. But if you feel that you are worthless and may as well drop out and quit, that you’re hopeless and a complete failure—that thinking came from the Enemy.

The unmet longing that got you into the mess in the first place is exposed again. You need love. You need peace. You need understanding. You need worth, significance, purpose, and fulfillment in your life. You’re right back where you started. That’s when the Enemy places his shiny fishing lure in front of you again and says, Hey, you need some pleasure.

“God, obviously I can’t do anything to change this situation. But Jesus, You can. I’m not going to hide from You anymore. I’m going to open my heart up to Your love and Your solutions and to the investigative and restorative work of the Holy Spirit.

Think about that for a moment. God. Will. Provide. A. Way. Out. That’s bedrock truth. A promise to you from Almighty God.

Victory is about examining the seeds that have been scattered in your mind and not letting them take root. It’s about pulling up and throwing away the thoughts that do not coincide with the heart of God.

Before the truth can set you free, you need to see the lies that are holding you hostage. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you which lies you’re believing. Ask Him to be specific. Are you having any of the following thoughts?

never change.

No one believes in me.

am my failure. I am my addiction.

was a sinner saved by grace who is now a new creation. I do not have to sin.

God is always faithful. He will always provide a way out. I can always take the way out.

Victory is not about something you do. That’s not the message here. The message is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s about what Jesus does for you. Jesus won the total victory Himself. God makes the way.

God, help me take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

First, you identify any deceptive thought in your mind.

it will feel better if I sin. If I overeat.

The next step is to bind that thought in Jesus’ name.

“Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” When you take something captive, you arrest

The prayers you make are to God. Yet sometimes I think it’s good if Satan or his evil bunch actually hear our prayers.

Use this specific, deliberate prayer to prohibit that thought from taking root in your mind: I bind this thought in Jesus’ name!

you memorize Scripture and then replay Scripture in your mind. You exchange the deceptive thoughts for thoughts of truth.