The Battle Over The Mind

I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't already know... but if you are a "believer" you know what I'm talking about when I say "the battle over the mind is the hardest battle of all"!  Does that make sense or is it just me?

I mean the 'struggles in life' themselves are nowhere close to the struggles of the mind.  That's where the real battle is.

For example, currently in my life, I struggle with disability from health issues, relationship defeat, pain from chronic back issues, pain from sciatic nerve issues among others.  And these are hard - well to me anyway.  But the struggle with how my 'mind' treats these issues keeps me at times in complete disarray and to a point of failure;  literally making me feel like a failure if I'm not careful.

Paul, in Romans 7 says it this way:

Romans 7:23-25 (NIV)
²³ but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
²⁵ Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Notice that while his battle was in the members of his body, the 'war' was in the 'law of my mind'.  Now, Paul was talking about his struggle with 'sin'.  But isn't sin anything that breaks the victory we have in Jesus Christ - our relationship?

The Great Deceiver uses anything he can in his bag of tricks to break our joy in the Lord; whether it's pain, broken relationships, suffering, addiction, and on and on.  The battle comes from anything that breaks our joy.  The pain from these wars brings me at times to a point of defeat - spiritual failure.

So how do we win the war? This is what becomes important and while I really haven't found victory, I have found "help in the battle".  I found it in a sermon that I now know God was sending to me though I was preparing it for others. Hopefully, it may help you also in your "war against the law of my (your) mind".

1. Confession -  Tell God!  Honesty!  Just as a child shares with his parent his pain, suffering, and defeats, share your 'battles' with God.  He wants to know.  Just as talking with a therapist can many times help through sharing, so sharing with God can soothe the soul.
2. Receive His Grace - When Paul asked God 3 times for the removal of a "thorn", God's reply was "my grace is sufficient" 2 Cor 12:9.  God has the love and power to supply the amount of grace needed for each moment.  Receive it in faith;
3. Revive Self Determination - Read this quote that makes good sense; Here's how Francis of Sales, a Seventeenth Century mystic handled his failings:

 "Well my poor soul, here we are in the ditch again – in spite of our earnest resolve to stay out of it. "Ah well, let us get out and be on our way; and we will do well enough, God helping us."

The 'battle' may wage on but the 'mind' can find 'peace in the storm'.  So if you are like me and find yourself in the midst of despair, seek the peace of God; the peace, as Paul says in Philippians 4:7, "and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus".

I don't know about you, but I need this peace!  Hope this helps!