It's a Battle!

My husband and I are reading the book Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer. It's a great book. Sometimes as we are reading I just have to laugh because she gives examples of lies the enemy tells us, and the words are so familiar because I've just heard them come out of my mouth that very day. And we think we're all alone in our struggle.

The truth is that spiritual, not physical, reality dictates who we are. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

This is something I am in the process of re-learning. Every word we speak either helps or hinders us. We can choose to speak the thoughts the enemy plants in our heads, and in doing so agree with what the enemy has told us. Or we can choose to speak the truth of God's word, agreeing with God and standing against the lies.

Sometimes we don't even realize the thoughts we speak are lies. Here's an example: "That's just the way I am." This may seem like a normal thing to say; we use it as an excuse all the time. But when we say it in response to a question like, "Why are you always mad?" or "I wish you would have more self-confidence," it shows that we have not only believed a lie, but have allowed it to dictate who we are.

God's desire for our lives is freedom. Freedom from the lies of the enemy. In her Bible study Breaking Free, Beth Moore says, "...deception is the glue that holds a stronghold together." When we realize the lies of the enemy we can "take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (Eph 6:17) and fight like the victorious men and women God destined us to be! When we realize the truth, God's truth, it can set us free!