@MarielB22 29 September 2021 more from that month

How to Win the War of Our Mind

The ancient philosopher Socrates once said: "Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people." There is an ongoing battle in all of our minds. Every thing we think, every impulse we have, and every act we carry out begins in our brain. King Solomon, the writer of Proverbs, wrote: "As he thinks within himself, so he is" (Proverbs 23:7). In plain words, **you are what you think**. The soul is our mind, our will, and our emotion. Those yelps of happiness, the tears of sorrow, and the comfort of joy emanate from our soul. And so does anger, hate and deception! Decisions All of the major and minor decisions we have made and will make began or will begin with a thought. We thought about what we would like to pursue educationally speaking and did it (or are still thinking about it). We thought about the person we admired and wanted to follow in their footsteps, and we thought about a certain individual as a partner and pursued a relationship. In the same way, minor decisions also begin with our thoughts. Hmm, what should I eat today? What will I wear today? What will I write about on read.cash next? What posts will I read and which ones will I skip? The battle Since we are what we think, it should come as no surprise to us that the Devil, yes, that ancient serpent who was present in the Garden of Eden, desires to gain a lot of influence over our lives. The main way he accomplishes this is through our mind. **Both God and Satan influence our minds**. That is comforting to know if we think godly thoughts! Speaking through the Apostle Paul, God says: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Philippians 4:8, ESV). There it is! It's plain as day. Desires One of the foremost ways we are influenced by Satan is by way of our desires. We want this or that; we want to hook up with a certain individual; we want to become rich; we want to watch an exciting Korean drama; we want to watch porn; we want to seek revenge; we want to gossip; and we want to (fill in the blank). You see where I am going? **We all have desires and they are not all good**. Our operating system We can imagine our mind as an operating system in a computer or smartphone. The operating system in these devices allows us to do certain things: email, text, play games, watch videos, read websites; get on social media, and so on. It also does not allow us to do other things: there are limitations. For example, we are unable to download every movie or popular song on our hard drives. But one thing is certain: there is no programmer or engineer or even an algorithm in China or Silicon Valley or Google that is telling our computer (brain) what to do or what not to do in real time. This is because our respective computers (brains) have already been configured with an operating system from God. Defective Like our computer or digital devices, we sometimes unknowingly pick up a virus or malware. The latter is especially inevitable. Our soul is the same way: we have definitely been infected with a virus called sin. We inherited that sin at birth from Adam and Eve (not Adam and Steve). So whenever God says, “You shall,” our immediate thought is, “I will not.” We already have that defective operating system (our sin nature) inside of us. This means the Devil doesn't have to directly speak to us to influence us. Recall what Paul said: "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate" (Romans 7:14-15, ESV). Recognize the battle here? Winning the battle When we become a believer in Jesus Christ by faith alone (not by works), God puts in all of us **a new operating system**. This is our seal of salvation - the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit gives us an entirely new set of thoughts and desires. Therefore, if God says yes to something, we agree with Him and want to say yes; but when God says no way, we also want to say no way.

Our minds are a constant battlefield of conflicting thoughts and desires. Look: "For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want" (Galatians 5:17, NIV). Let's think and desire the things of God today, tomorrow and going forward rather than the things of this present world which is passing away. Those of us who have the indwelling Holy Spirit know what to think and desire and should heed the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Conversely, those who do not have the new operating system need a new one: the indwelling Holy Spirit of God.