The Battle of the Mind (Part 1)

Whether you realize it or not, every new day when your eyes open, heart beats, lungs breathe, and blood flows is a gift.  It is a new day of opportunity and possibility.  Be grateful for it.  Be a good steward of it.

To do that, you must recognize that your day will be a series of battles.  The outcome of each battle is determined by your thoughts.  The battleground is your mind.

To win each battle, you must know your enemies.  They seek to disrupt your focus, derail you from your purpose, and create chaos in your life.  They strive to keep you off your game and stop you from changing your life for the better.

You have three main enemies:

• Your old self.  You know who you want to become.  You want to do the right thing, but you find yourself doing things your really don’t want to do.  These are the battles between your old character and your good intentions.
• Pop culture.  This is society’s value system.  It works against you.  It’s attractive and tempting, but does not reward self-discipline and self-control.  It encourages gluttony in every aspect of life.  These are the battles between what pop culture promotes and your new character, i.e. the person you want to become.
• Satan.  This is an evil spirit working against you every minute of every day.  It’s real.  It makes very powerful suggestions and constantly plants negative thoughts in your mind.  It will use other people, the media, or just throw a thought in your mind.  These are spiritual battles, and failure to recognize them as such puts you at a severe disadvantage.

Knowledge of your enemies is the first step to winning these battles.  Next week, I will offer the second step:  weapons you can use to fight them.