Battlefield of the Mind (10 page)

Since you can choose your own thoughts, when doubt comes you should learn to recognize it for what it is, say "No, thank you"—and keep on believing!

The
choice
is yours!

UNBELIEF IS DISOBEDIENCE

And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a
certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying,
Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for
ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.

And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.

Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse
generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.

And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the
child was cured from that very hour.

Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we
cast him out?

And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief.... Matthew 17:14-20 KJV

Remember that unbelief leads to disobedience.

Perhaps Jesus had taught His disciples certain things to do in these cases, and their unbelief caused them to disobey Him; therefore, they were unsuccessful.

In any case, the point is that unbelief, like doubt, will keep us from doing what God has called and anointed us to accomplish in life. It will also keep us from experiencing the sense of peace that He wants us to enjoy as we find rest for our souls in Him. (Matthew 11:28,29 KJV.) 

A SABBATH REST

Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive
diligently to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for
ourselves], that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief
and disobedience [into which those in the wilderness fell]. Hebrews 4:11

If you read the entire fourth chapter of the book of Hebrews, you will find it speaking about a sabbath rest that is available to God's people.

Under the Old Covenant, the Sabbath was observed as a day of rest.

Under the New Covenant, this sabbath rest spoken of is a spiritual place of rest. It is the privilege of every believer to refuse to worry or have anxiety. As believers, you and I can enter the rest of God.

Careful observation of Hebrews 4:11 reveals that we will never enter that rest except through believing, and we will forfeit it through unbelief and disobedience. Unbelief will keep us in "wilderness living," but Jesus has provided a permanent place of rest, one that can be inhabited only through living by faith.

LIVING FROM FAITH TO FAITH

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. Romans 1:17 KJV

I remember an incident that may drive this point home very clearly.

One evening I was walking around my house trying to do some household things, and I was so miserable. I did not have any joy—there was no peace in my heart. I kept asking the Lord, "What's wrong with me?" I often felt that way, and I sincerely wanted to know what my problem was. I was trying to follow all the things I was learning in my walk with Jesus, but something surely seemed to be missing.

About that time the phone rang and, while I was talking, I thumbed through a box of Scripture cards someone had sent me. I wasn't really looking at any of them, just flipping them around while I was on the phone. When I hung up, I decided to choose one at random and see if I could get any encouragement from it.

I pulled out Romans 15:13, May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.

I saw it!

My whole problem was doubt and unbelief. I was making myself unhappy by believing the devil's lies. I was being negative. I could not have joy and peace because I was not believing. It is impossible to have joy and peace and live in unbelief.

Make a decision to believe God and not the devil!

Learn to live from faith to faith. According to Romans 1:17, that is the way the righteousness of God is revealed. The Lord had to reveal to me that instead of living from faith to faith I would often live from faith to doubt to unbelief. Then I would go back to faith for a while, and later, return to doubt and unbelief. Back and forth I would go from one to the other. That's why I was having so much trouble and misery in my life.

Remember, according to James 1:7,8 (KJV), the double-minded man is unstable in all his ways and never receives what he wants from the Lord.

Make up your mind that you will not be double-minded; don't live in doubt!

God has a great life planned for you. Don't let the devil steal it from you through lies! Instead, . .refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and. .lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Chapter 12

An Anxious and Worried Mind

...fret not thyself in any wise....

PSALM 37:8 KJV

Anxiety and worry are both attacks on the mind intended to distract us from serving the Lord. The enemy also uses both of these torments to press our faith down, so it cannot rise up and help us live in victory.

Some people have such a problem with worry that it might even be said that they are addicted to worrying. If they do not have something of their own to worry about, they will worry over someone else's situation. I had this problem, so I am well qualified to describe the condition.

Because I was constantly worrying about something, I never enjoyed the peace that Jesus died for me to have.

It is absolutely impossible to worry and live in peace at the same time.

Peace is not something that can be put on a person; it is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), and fruit is the result of abiding in the vine. (John 15:4 KJV.) Abiding relates to entering the "rest of God" spoken of in the fourth chapter of Hebrews as well as other places in the Word of God.

There are several words in the Bible that refer to worry, depending on what translation is being read. The
King James Version
does not use the word "worry." In addition to "fret not" (Psalm 37:8), other sample phrases used to warn against worry are "take no thought," (Matthew 6:25), "be careful for nothing" (Philippians 4:6) and "casting.. all your care" (1 Peter 5:7). I generally use
The Amplified Bible,
which includes several different translations of these and other phrases relating to the subject. In order to simplify the teaching in the rest of this chapter, I will refer to the condition as "worry."

WORRY DEFINED

Webster defines the word worry as follows: "—vi. 1. To feel uneasy or troubled.. .—vt. 1. To cause to feel anxious, distressed, or troubled.. .—n... 2. A source of nagging concern."1 I have also heard it defined as to torment oneself with disturbing thoughts.

When I saw the part about tormenting oneself with disturbing thoughts, I decided right then and there that I am smarter than that. I believe every Christian is. I think believers have more wisdom than to sit around and torment themselves.

Worry certainly never makes anything better, so why not give it up?

Another part of the definition also enlightened me: "To seize by the throat with teeth and shake or mangle, as one animal does another, or to harass by repeated biting and snapping."2

Pondering this definition, I made the following correlation—the devil uses worry to do to us precisely what is described above. When we have had a bout with worry for even a few hours, that is exactly how we feel—

as if someone has had us by the throat and shaken us until we are totally worn out and mangled. The repetition of thoughts that comes and won't let up is like the repeated biting and snapping described in this definition.

Worry is definitely an attack from Satan upon the mind. There are certain things the believer is instructed to do with his mind, and the enemy wants to make sure that they are never done. So the devil attempts to keep the mental arena busy enough with the wrong kinds of thinking so that the mind never gets around to being used for the purpose for which God designed it.

We will be discussing the right things to do with the mind in a later chapter, but for now let's continue our study of worry until we get a full revelation on just how useless it really is.

Matthew 6:25-34 are excellent Scriptures to read when we feel a

"worry attack" coming on. Let's look at each of these verses separately to see what the Lord is saying to us about this vital subject.

IS NOT LIFE GREATER THAN THINGS?

Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and
worried) about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink; or
about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater [in quality] than food, and the body [far above and more excellent] than clothing? Matthew 6:25

Life is intended to be of such high quality that we enjoy it immensely.

In John 10:10, Jesus said, The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows). Satan attempts to steal that life from us in many ways—one of them being worry.

In Matthew 6:25 we are being taught that there is nothing in life that we are to worry about—not any aspect of it! The quality of life that God has provided for us is great enough to include all those other things, but if we worry about the things, then we lose them as well as the life He intended us to have.

AREN'T YOU MORE VALUABLE THAN A BIRD?

Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather
into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you
not worth much more than they? Matthew 6:26

It might do all of us good to spend some time watching birds. That's what our Lord told us to do.

If not every day, then at least every now and then we need to take the time to observe and remind ourselves how well our feathered friends are cared for. They literally do not know where their next meal is coming from; yet, I have personally never seen a bird sitting on a tree branch having a nervous breakdown due to worry.

The Master's point here is really very simple,
"Are you not worth more
than a bird?"

Even though you may be wrestling with a poor self-image, surely you can believe that you are more valuable than a bird, and look how well your heavenly Father takes care of them.

WHAT DO YOU GAIN BY WORRYING?

And who of you by worrying and being anxious can add one unit
of measure (cubit) to his stature or to the span of his life? Matthew 6:27

The point is quickly made that worry is useless. It does not accomplish any good thing. If that is so, then why worry, why be so anxious?

WHY BE SO ANXIOUS?

And why should you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies
of the field and learn thoroughly how they grow; they neither toil nor
spin.

Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his magnificence (excellence,
dignity, and grace) was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive
and green and tomorrow is tossed into the furnace, will He not much
more surely clothe you, O you of little faith? Matthew 6:28-30

Using the illustration of one of His creations, the Lord makes the point that if a flower, which does nothing, can be so well taken care of and look so good that it outshines even Solomon in all his majesty, then surely we can believe that we will be taken care of and provided for.

THEREFORE, DON'T WORRY OR BE ANXIOUS!

Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying, What are we going
to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we
going to have to wear? Matthew 6:31

I like to amplify this verse a bit and include one more question, "What are we going to do?"

I think Satan sends out demons whose job it is to do nothing but repeat that phrase in the believer's ear all day long. They fire off difficult questions, and the believer wastes his precious time attempting to come up with an answer. The devil is constantly waging war on the battlefield of the mind, hoping to engage the Christian in long, drawn-out, costly combat.

Notice that part of verse 31 in which the Lord instructs us not to worry or be anxious. Remember that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. (Matthew 12:34 KJV.) The enemy knows that if he can get enough of the wrong things going on in our mind, they will eventually begin to come out of our mouth. Our words are very important because they confirm our faith—or in some instances our lack of faith.

SEEK GOD. NOT GIFTS

For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek
all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need
them all.

But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His
righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these
things taken together will be given you besides. Matthew 6:32,33

It is clear that God's children are not to be like the world! The world seeks after things, but we are to seek the Lord. He has promised that if we will do that, He will add to us all these things He knows we need.