The Battlefield

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From the moment we wake up in the morning until we drop down in our beds at night we are in a war every day? Looking around at all the suffering, we see people sick with disease, homes being broken up because of divorce, and tragedies from all around the world surrounds us. It seems we are losing the battle over the diseases that seem to be overwhelming the hospitals, there seems to be no end to the cases in the divorce courts, and natural disasters and wars never seem to cease, however, the biggest conflict in most of us today is the battle that is going on in our own minds. Every day we are bombarded through the media, friends, family or just personally in our minds with a constant stream of thoughts of suspicions, doubts and fears. Any one of these can cause us to feel defeated or totally devastated, yet our daily lives combat against these mental aggressors from sun up til sun down. We get so caught up in the chaos that we fail to recognize the battlefield and who the enemy is. We try to make the problems in our lives to be because of other people, financial difficulties, religion or the government. To make ourselves feel better we try to defend ourselves by building strongholds in our mind. These strongholds are based on what we perceive to be the truth for our own self-preservation and way of life. However, strongholds unless they are built on the Word of God are lies that will actually imprison us instead of protecting us. If we do not have a renewing of our mind according to the Ways and Word of God, we risk continuing to believe these lies and making important decisions based on deception. Many things have gone on in my life that has caused me to put up barriers, has caused me to become bitter, angry, resentful, and fight daily the feeling of rejection. I am constantly in a battle with my emotions. Because of these things I have caused dissension in my home with my husband, alienated my children from being too bossy, head strong about handling all the finances and making all the decisions. I have been very demanding, un-accepting of any other behavior or ways other than mine. This stronghold in my life has cost me just about everything and created within me high anxiety and chronic depression in which I went to counseling for. Even though the counseling did help with the anxiety and depression there was still this fierce struggle going on inside me, WHY? Because the counseling helped me to control my actions but it did not teach me how to control my thoughts. My thoughts from early childhood through difficult situations in adulthood still haunted me and I had a hard time turning them off or knowing what thoughts to control. It was not until I finally relented to the call of my Lord that I realized that it was only through Him and I would be able to claim victory in my life, and that He was the only one that could help me tear down these strongholds that were ruling my thinking. Do you see yourself in MY life?Just as I did for many years, maybe you have also given in to deception at one time or another, but the good news is these strongholds can be torn down if you are willing to receive the light of Truth in your mind. The search for Truth begins in God's Word, in John 8: 31-36 is says "Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. (32) "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (33) They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendents, and have never been in bondage to anyone, How can you say, 'You will be made free'?" (34) Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin." (35) "And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever." (36) "Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed". This tells us that we can be free from the bondage of sin and the strongholds in our minds. We can search all day long for the Truth but it will not ever set us free until we finally allow ourselves to fully believe the Truth. This can be a very difficult process to go through, for when we do decide to accept the Truth it will turn on flood lights that will expose what is inside of us, and that can be very hard for us to accept, however, it is a very necessary process that we have to face in order to expose the deceptions that we have built up in our mind in order to deal with them. For so long I have used my past, being an adopted child, being in physically abusive relationships, divorce, to negatively affect my life. These things can explain my depression and anxiety, but I have learned that if I keep using the excuse of suffering from depression and anxiety then they will keep a stronghold on my life. This is where we identify the enemy, Satan. For a stronghold of this kind is definitely a weapon of choice that Satan uses to keep us bogged down in our past, in our hurt, pain, and grief. He uses this weapon with lethal accuracy and shoots straight to our heart and mind. As long as Satan can keep us in confusion, keep us lashing out, make us harden our hearts, keep us discouraged, fill our minds with hate, anger, mistrust, then Satan is winning the war over our lives and using your mind as the battlefield, but let me tell you with complete confidence that God is on your side, He is there ready and willing to fight this battle for you, and I promise that if God is for you then no one or nothing can come against you that you can not handle, and you will be able to claim the victory over every stronghold that Satan is trying to keep on you! Seek the Truth and the Truth will set you free!!!