Power Thoughts: 12 Strategies to Win the Battle of the Mind (33 page)

You feed yourself spiritually in a similar manner. The spiritual part of you does want and need to spend quality time with God, but your flesh needs to be disciplined. It needs to form new habits. Prayer is talking to God about all kinds of things. You would never expect to have a good relationship with a human being if you never spoke to that person or took time to listen to him or her, would you? Then why would you think you could enjoy a growing relationship with God if you never spoke or listened to Him?

Spending time in God’s Word and in prayer are both spiritual disciplines that help us get to know Him. Worship and praise is another way to connect with God. When you worship God, you focus on who He is; you magnify all the things that are so wonderful about Him and you thank Him for all of His goodness in your life. This causes your faith to grow and it draws you closer to Him. Serving and giving with a right motive also brings us closer to God. All of these spiritual disciplines prevent you from being hungry spiritually. Make the effort to exercise them, and you’ll see what I mean.

Educate Yourself

Another way to seek God is to educate yourself concerning the ways and purposes of God. You certainly have to put your heart into seeking God, but you also have to put your mind into it and you have to learn things you may not know yet. Find a good, solid, Bible-based church and get involved in it. Read books; listen to sermons and teachings; take classes or go to Bible studies; attend conferences and seminars; find people who are more mature and experienced in God than you are and ask them questions. If you are truly seeking God, you will need to make an effort. Investing time and money into getting the resources you need to grow is a valuable investment that pays wonderful dividends.

If you went to college, you would expect to purchase textbooks and make an investment of time in order to gain the knowledge you desired. Why should learning about God be any different?

Prove It

In Power Thought 5, I mentioned that love is more than nice feelings; real love includes action. If we say we love God and want to put Him first in our lives, we must act—and we act on our love by obeying Him. Very few of us would say, “I am not going to obey God.” Instead we make excuses. I remember many times when I would be easily angered and difficult to get along with and then I would excuse my behavior by saying, “I am tired and don’t feel good.” It may be more difficult to be kind to others when we are tired, but at all cost we must avoid making excuses because they deceive us and give us permission to continue in disobedience. We are not putting God first if we disobey Him.

If we truly desire to obey God, we steadily grow in learning how to hear His voice and choose the path He is asking us to take. Pray daily that you will receive the grace from God to obey Him. Don’t just try… pray!

Prompt Obedience

In Exodus 24, God spoke to Moses and Moses recorded what He said. When he read these words to God’s people, they responded, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and we will be obedient” (Exodus 24:7). Obviously, they did not treat God’s Word lightly. They understood that they could not simply hear what God said, they also had to obey. When I read this passage, I get the impression the people had come to hear the Word having already decided they wanted to learn what they were supposed to do and how they were supposed to live. Their attitude seemed to be, “No matter what God says, we will do it.” Meditating on the power thought, “I put God first in my life,” will help you develop a new mind-set. Your attitude will change to one of prompt obedience rather than one of procrastination and excuses.

In James 1:22 we read, “But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it.” Wonderful things would happen if we made our mind up to do what we hear in God’s Word rather than merely listening to it.

In our culture today, we sometimes listen to Bible-based teaching for the sake of gaining knowledge. Though knowledge is important, it won’t change our lives unless we act on it. Many people have said to me over the years, “Joyce, I have all your books and tapes, and I watch you on television every day.” I appreciate such comments, but I really want to say in response, “That’s great, but are you applying what you learn? Are you obeying the Word of God when you hear it?” I have talked in this book about the power of proper mind-sets. If we set our mind in advance to obey God’s instructions it will be much easier to do. How much of what you know are you doing? Start confessing, “I put God and His will first at all times.” This will renew your mind and soon you will find yourself being more obedient with less struggle. Remember that where the mind goes the man follows. We become what we think (see Proverbs 23:7).

We must not allow ourselves to merely feel good about the fact that we go to church, can quote Scripture, or have a houseful of Christian resources unless we are also making every effort to line our behavior up with what we learn. I realize we are on a lifetime journey and that none of us have arrived, but we do need to make sure that we are daily pressing toward the goal of being like Christ.

Large numbers of Christians live in anger, bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness yet they know that God strongly instructs us to forgive and to be quick about it. Why would they do that? They do it because obedience requires a decision of the will that goes beyond emotions. We follow our feelings entirely too much. We must own our emotions and not allow them to own us. A person may know that they really need to get out of debt, but they just keep putting it off. They intend to do it but fail to realize that good intentions are not obedience. If we simply listen and don’t obey, it really doesn’t help us nor does it glorify God.

Putting God first means that we choose what pleases Him rather than what pleases us. Try to learn in your experience what is pleasing to God and set your mind to do it.

Don’t Serve Leftovers

I could not write about putting God first without mentioning Matthew 6:33: “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.” In other words, if we put God first, all our needs will be met; everything else will fall into place.

The idea of putting God first appears throughout the Bible. In the Old Testament, God’s people gave what was called a “firstfruits offering,” which meant they gave to Him the first of everything they had—their produce, firstborn animals, firstborn sons, their gold and silver—everything. So, if a man worked as a farmer, he gave the first crops that appeared in his field to the Lord as an offering.

When we give God our firsts, we are saying, “Lord, I want to give this to you before I do anything else. I trust You to take care of me and meet all of my needs, and I want to honor you with the first evidence of my provision and increase. I don’t want to give you my leftovers; I want to give you my ‘firsts,’ to show that you are first in my life. I’m giving you my firstfruits, and I trust you to bring more.” If we give God the first of everything that comes our way, the rest is blessed.

You see, God is a creator, not a consumer. Everything we have comes from Him; He simply asks for the first portion of it back—not because He needs it, but because we need to give it to keep ourselves mindful of the fact that He is preeminent in our lives. Nothing we offer to Him is ever lost; instead it can be multiplied because we put it in His hands.

I urge you to put God first by giving Him your firsts. Give Him the first part of every day by spending time with Him before you do anything else. Begin to schedule your day around God instead of trying to work God into your day. If we give Him the first part, He will make the rest extremely productive. Give God the first portion of your finances by not waiting to see what you have left for Him after you pay your bills. Give God the first of your attention, by turning to Him for guidance before you run to your friends or to the Internet for advice.

God is great and He is our God! He is able and willing to do more for us than we could ever ask or think (see Ephesians 3:20). He desires to enlarge your life and He wants you to enjoy not only your life, but Him. Do you enjoy God? Are you in close fellowship with Him? Is He first in your life? Don’t be afraid to answer these questions honestly because God loves honesty. There was certainly a time in my life when God was not first; I went to church but did not enjoy God or have close fellowship with Him. All that has changed in my life and it can change in yours too. Begin practicing the power thought, “I put God first in my life.” The more you think it, the more you will do it.

Putting God first is a choice. You have to do it deliberately. But it’s a choice that brings greater blessings than you could ever imagine—peace in your heart, joy, fulfillment in life, provision for every need, and every other good thing. Put God first in your life today and every day. And watch to see what He will do!

Think about It

I want you to be totally honest with yourself and ask yourself if you’ve let anything get ahead of Him. if you have, make an adjustment.

Power Pack

“Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as a vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

Jeremiah 29:13

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect).”

Matthew 22:37

“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 6:33

Armed and Ready for Battle

B
oth the lion and the gazelle have to stay vigilant and active in order to stay alive. The same is true for you and me. I really do believe the quality of your life is at stake and if you want to have the best life you can possibly have, you have to be relentless about thinking right thoughts. You need to think on purpose; you need to discipline your mind; and you need to make sure your thoughts agree with God’s Word in every area of your life. I hope this book has built a desire and determination in you to do so.

I had the privilege of writing a book in 2002 that has sold over two million copies and been distributed in many languages. It is called
Battlefield of the Mind
. The book teaches the importance of thoughts and how to control them. This book,
Power Thoughts,
is a step beyond
Battlefield of the Mind
. I think it is a clear study of how to keep our minds renewed daily and enjoy the life God intends for us. Meditating on God’s word, rolling Scriptures over and over in our mind and muttering them verbally, is vital to renewing the mind. I think I can accurately say that it is the key to renewing your mind. The more we think about a portion of Scripture, the more it is changed from information to revelation and that is what we need. When something becomes revelation to us it is alive in us, and has much more impact on us than mere information. This is why Jesus said that the measure of thought and study we give to the truth we hear is the measure of virtue (power) and knowledge that comes back to us (see Mark 4:24).

The mind is definitely the battleground where we do war with Satan and his evil, deceptive thoughts. If we do not war against them, they will turn into actions and our lives will be ruined. The word of God is our weapon and we must aggressively use it to constantly renew our minds.

Remember, renewing your mind takes time. You may need to finish reading this page and then turn back to the beginning of this book and go through it again in order to get what you need from it. You may need to reread specific chapters or passages over the days and weeks ahead in order to get certain points established in your mind. You may need to find a friend who also understands the power of thoughts and read this book together, talking through it and encouraging each other to do what it suggests. Write down these twelve power thoughts large enough that you can easily read them as you pass by. Put them in several places where you will probably be every day. Write them in the front of your Bible, carry this book with you and reread chapters while you are waiting for appointments. Whatever you need to do to get your mind in the condition God wants it to be in, do it—because your quality of life depends on it.

If you have not read
Battlefield of the Mind,
I strongly encourage that you do so. We even have it available in special formats for children and teens. We want the whole family to think right!
Battlefield of the Mind
is also available in a devotional, on CD and DVD. You can see that I am serious about helping people learn to think right.

Don’t forget: Take each power thought and spend a week meditating on it. The entire program will take twelve weeks. You can consider going through the program four times in a year or at the very least go back over the ones that pertain to you the most. Repetition is good! It will help these thoughts get rooted in your heart, then you will begin to say what is in your heart and when your words agree with God’s, you will see circumstances change.

I am excited for all of you as you decide to follow through with this program. I know what these principles have produced in my life, and they will do the same in yours. Have a great journey!

NOTES

Chapter 1: The Power of a Positive You

1
. “Stripped Gears” (
The Rotarian,
March 1988), 72.

Chapter 2: Teach Your Mind to Work for You

1
. Carol Ryff, “Power of a Super Attitude” (
USA Today,
October 12, 2004),
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-10-12-mind-body x.htm
.