Battlefield of the Mind (19 page)

I was looking at the emotional side of the issue, and he was looking at the practical side. Any time we make a decision, we should look at both sides—not just what will be enjoyable, but the responsibility it will require. A lake home is perfectly fine for those who have the time to put into it, but we really didn't. Deep down I knew that, but on and off for a year I tried to talk Dave into buying one.

I'm glad he stayed firm. If he hadn't, I am sure we would have bought the place, kept it for a while and probably ended up selling it because it was too much work. As it turned out, friends of ours bought a lake home and let us use it as our schedule and theirs permit.

If you use wisdom, you will find God meeting your needs. Anyone operating in the mind of Christ will walk in wisdom—not emotions.

Be responsible!

Chapter 18

Please make everything easy; I cant take it if things are too hard!

Wilderness Mentality #3

For this commandment which I command you this day is not too difficult for you, nor is it far of
f.

DEUTERONOMY 30:11

This wrong mindset is similar to the one we have just discussed, but enough of a problem among God's people that I believe it is worthy of a chapter in this book.

It is one of the most commonly expressed excuses I hear from people in prayer lines. So often, someone will come to me for advice and prayer, and when I tell them what the Word of God says, or what I think the Holy Spirit is saying, their response is, "I know that's right; God has been showing me the same thing. But Joyce, it's just too hard."

God has shown me that the enemy tries to inject this phrase into people's minds to get them to give up. A few years ago when God revealed this truth to me, He instructed me to stop saying how hard everything was, assuring me that if I did, things would get easier.

Even when we are determined to press through and do something, we spend so much time thinking and talking about "how hard it is" that the project ends up being much more difficult than it would have been had we been positive instead of negative.

When I initially began to see from the Word of God how I was supposed to live and behave, and compared it to where I was, I was always saying, "I want to do things Your way, God, but it is so hard." The Lord led me to Deuteronomy 30:11 in which He says that His commandments are not too difficult or too far away.

The reason our Lord's commands are not too difficult for us is because He gives us His Spirit to work in us powerfully and to help us in all He has asked of us.

THE HELPER

And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter
(Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby),
that He may remain with you forever.... John 14:16

Things get hard when we are trying to do them independently without leaning on and relying on God's grace. If everything in life were easy, we would not even need the power of the Holy Spirit to help us.

The Bible refers to Him as "the Helper." He is in us and with us all the time to
help
us, to enable us to do what we cannot do—and, I might add, to do with ease what would be hard without Him.

THE EASY WAY AND THE HARD WAY

When Pharaoh let the people go, God led them not by way of the
land of the Philistines, although that was nearer; for God said, Lest the
people change their purpose when they see war and return to Egypt. Exodus 13:17

You can be sure that anywhere God leads you, He is able to keep you.

He never allows more to come on us than we can bear. (1 Corinthians 10:13.) Whatever He orders, He pays for. We do not have to live in a constant struggle if we learn to lean on Him continually for the strength we need.

If you know God has asked you to do something, don't back down just because it gets hard. When things get hard, spend more time with Him, lean more on Him and receive more grace from Him. (Hebrews 4:16.)

Grace is the power of God coming to you at no cost to you, to do through you what you cannot do by yourself. Beware of thoughts that say, "I can't do this; it's just too hard."

Sometimes God leads us the hard way instead of the easy way, because He is doing a work in us. How will we ever learn to lean on Him, if everything in our lives is so easy that we can handle it by ourselves?

God led the Children of Israel the long, hard way because they were still cowards, and He had to do a work in them to prepare them for the battles they would face in the Promised Land.

Most people think that entering the Promised Land means no more battles, but that is incorrect. If you read the accounts of what took place after the Israelites crossed the Jordan River and went in to possess the land of promise, you will see that they fought one battle after another. But they won all those battles fought in God's strength and under His direction.

God led them the longer, harder route even though there was a shorter, easier one because He knew they were not ready for the battles they would face in possessing the land. He was concerned that when they saw the enemy, they might run back to Egypt, so He took them the harder way to teach them Who He was and that they could not depend on themselves.

When a person is going through a hard time, his mind wants to give up. Satan knows that if he can defeat us in our mind, he can defeat us in our experience. That's why it is so important that we not lose heart, grow weary and faint.

HANG TOUGH!

And let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly
and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed season we shall
reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint. Galatians 6:9

Losing heart and fainting refer to giving up in the mind. The Holy Spirit tells us not to give up in our mind, because if we hold on, we will eventually reap.

Think about Jesus. Immediately after being baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested and tried by the devil. He did not complain and become discouraged and depressed. He did not think or speak negatively. He did not become confused trying to figure out why this had to happen! He went through each test victoriously.

In the midst of His trial and temptation, our Lord did not wander around the wilderness forty days and nights talking about how hard it was. He drew strength from His heavenly Father and came out in victory. (Luke 4:1-13.)

an you imagine Jesus traveling around the country with His disciples talking about how hard everything was? Can you picture Him discussing how difficult going to the cross was going to be.. or how He dreaded the things ahead.. or how frustrating it was to live under the conditions of their daily lives: roaming the countryside with no place to call home, no roof over their head, no bed to sleep in at night.

In my own situation as I travel from place to place all over the land preaching the Gospel, I have had to learn not to talk about the hardships involved in my kind of ministry. I have had to learn not to complain about how hard it is to stay in a strange hotel each time, eat out constantly, sleep in a different bed every weekend, be away from home, meet new people and grow comfortable with them just in time to move on.

You and I have the mind of Christ, and we can handle things the way He did: by being mentally prepared through "victory thinking"—not"give up thinking."

SUCCESS FOLLOWS SUFFERING

So, since Christ suffered in the flesh for us, for you, arm
yourselves with the same thought and purpose [patiently to suffer
rather than fail to please God]. For whoever has suffered in the flesh [having the mind of Christ] is done with [intentional] sin [has stopped
pleasing himself and the world, and pleases God],
So that he can no longer spend the rest of his natural life living by [his] human appetites and desires, but [he lives] for what God wills. 1 Peter 4:1,2

This passage teaches us a secret concerning how to make it through difficult things and times. Here is my rendition of these two Scriptures:

"Think about everything Jesus went through and how He endured suffering in His flesh, and it will help you make it through your difficulties. Arm yourselves for battle; prepare yourselves to win by thinking as Jesus did...'I will patiently suffer rather than fail to please God. .' For if I suffer, having the mind of Christ toward it, I will no longer be living just to please myself, doing whatever is easy and running from all that is hard. But I will be able to live for what God wills and not by my feelings and carnal thoughts."

There is a suffering "in the flesh" that we will have to endure in order to do God's will.

My flesh is not always comfortable with the traveling ministry lifestyle, but I know it is the will of God for me to follow it. Therefore, I have to arm myself with right thinking about it; otherwise, I am defeated before I ever really get started.

There may be an individual in your life who is very difficult to be around, and yet you know that God wants you to stick with the relationship and not run away from it. Your flesh suffers, in that it is not easy to be around that person, but you can prepare yourself by thinking properly about the situation.

SELF-SUFFICIENT IN CHRIST'S SUFFICIENCY

I know how to be abased and live humbly in straitened
circumstances, and I know also how to enjoy plenty and live in
abundance. I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret of
facing every situation, whether well-fed or going hungry, having a
sufficiency and enough to spare or going without and being in want.

I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am
ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses
inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency]. Philippians 4:12,13

Right thinking "arms" us for battle. Going into battle with wrong thinking is like going to the front lines in a war without a weapon. If we do that, we won't last long.

The Israelites were "whiners," which was one reason why they wandered around forty years, making an eleven-day trip. They whined about every difficulty and complained about each new challenge—

always talking about how hard everything was. Their mentality was,

"Please make everything easy; I can't take it if things are too hard!"

I realized recently that many believers are Sunday warriors and Monday whiners. They talk a good talk on Sunday—in church with all their friends—but on Monday, when it's time to "walk the talk' and there is nobody around to impress, they faint at the slightest test.

If you are a whiner and a complainer, get a new mindset that says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13 NKJV).

Chapter 19

I can't help it; I'm just addicted to grumbling, faultfinding and complaining.

Wilderness Mentality #4

For one is regarded favorably (is approved, acceptable, and thankworthy) if, as in the sight of God, he endures the pain of unjust suffering.

[After all] what kind of glory [is there in it] if, when you do wrong and are punished for it, you take it patiently? But if you bear patiently with suffering [which results] when you do right and that is undeserved, it is acceptable and pleasing to God.

1 PETER 2:19,20
Until we learn to glorify God by our attitude during hard times, we won't get delivered. It is not suffering that glorifies God, but a godly attitude in suffering that pleases Him and brings glory to Him.
If you and I are going to receive from these verses what God wants us to have, we will have to read them slowly and digest each phrase and sentence thoroughly. I will admit that I studied them for years trying to understand why it pleased God so much to see me suffer when the Bible plainly states that Jesus bore my suffering and pains of punishment. (Isaiah 53:3-6.)
It was many years before I realized that the focal point of these verses in 1 Peter is not the suffering but the attitude one should have in suffering.
Notice the word "patiently" being used in this passage, which says that if someone treats us wrong and we handle it patiently, it is pleasing to God. The thing that pleases Him is our patient attitude—not our suffering. To encourage us in our suffering, we are exhorted to look at how Jesus handled the unjust attacks made on Him.

JESUS AS OUR EXAMPLE

For even to this were you called [it is inseparable from your
vocation]. For Christ also suffered for you, leaving you [His personal] example, so that you should follow in His footsteps.

He was guilty of no sin, neither was deceit (guile) ever found on
His lips.

When He was reviled and insulted, He did not revile or offer
insult in return; [when] He was abused and suffered, He made no
threats [of vengeance]; but He trusted [Himself and everything] to Him
Who judges fairly. 1 Peter 2:21-23

Jesus suffered gloriously! Silently, without complaint, trusting God no matter how things looked, He remained the same in every situation. He did not respond patiently when things were easy and impatiently when they were hard or unjust.

The above Scriptures let us know that Jesus is our example and that He came to show us how to live. How we handle our-selves in front of other people shows them how they should live. We teach our children more by example than by words. We are to be living epistles read of all men (2 Corinthians 3:23 KJV)—lights shining out brightly in a dark world. (Philippians 2:15.)

CALLED TO HUMILITY. MEEKNESS AND PATIENCE

I therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, appeal to and beg you to
walk (lead a life) worthy of the [divine] calling to which you have
been called [with behavior that is a credit to the summons to God's
service,