Winning The War In Your Mind by Craig Groeschel

The book in “three” sentences:

The devil’s target is your mind and his weapon is his lies. His goal is to keep you in bondage, believing his lies, because we live our lives based on what we believe to be true.

We fight back in four primary ways:

First by replacing these lies with truth we find in scripture. Second we must rewire our brains to think truth (instead of lies) by creating new neural pathways. We create these pathways by internalizing scripture and reciting personal declarations, based on those scriptures. Next we adjust our cognitive biases to focus on God’s goodness, because inevitably, we find what we’re looking for. Finally, we pray and praise regardless of circumstance because not only do these tools change the situation, they change our perspective.

Big Ideas:

1. Our mind is the battle ground. This is because perception is reality. We live our lives based on what we believe to be true. It’s like the quote from Henry Ford, “whether you think you can or think you can’t – you’re right!” So, if our thoughts control us, we better control your thoughts. Unfortunately, many Christians don’t know they’re in a battle, so they don’t wage war at all. Satan is bombarding us with lies and we’re oblivious to the assault. 
2. The Replacement Principle. The first tool discussed in this book is replacing the enemy’s lies with His truth. Jesus modeled this for us when he was tempted by Satan in the desert. Each time Satan came at Him with a lie, Jesus countered with scripture. We can’t defeat what we can’t define, so first we must identify the lies we believe. It’s often difficult to be aware of where we’re being duped, so an easy way to identify where we are believing a lie is to look for chronic problem areas in our lives (ex. over eating, debt, substance abuse, anxiety, low self-esteem, relationship struggles, pornography addiction, etc.). No doubt, behind each of these struggles there is always a lie we have bought into. Once the lie is identified, we can search the scriptures and find what God has to say about it. 
3. The Rewiring Principle. While replacing the enemy’s lies with God’s truth is critical, it’s just the first step in winning the battle for our mind. This is because quite often, we don’t just have a “truth problem” we have a biology problem. See, every thought we have produces a neurochemical change in our minds. Our brains literally redesign themselves around the way we think. When we think the same though multiple times it will create something called a neural pathway. Like a little highway or rut in the brain, the presence of a neural pathway creates a path in the brain that makes a thought easier to think. Thus, thinking thoughts or doing things again and again eventually becomes effortless. It’s like riding a bike, at first it was really difficult, but after doing it over and over, we don’t even need to think about it anymore, it’s just automatic. This is obviously hugely beneficial, however, neural pathways that are created as a result of sinful thinking or actions result in sin patterns that are difficult to escape. This is because even if we know the truth, our brains are wired to think the lie automatically. Therefore, we must rewire our brains and create new neural pathways of truth. We do this by internalizing and memorizing scripture, and creating personal declarations that speak that scripture into our specific situations. We recite these over and over until we find ourselves automatically thinking truth instead of lies.
4. The Reframe Principle. Because of something called cognitive bias, we often see what we expect to see instead of what is actually there. We all have these biases, so we might as well choose to be biased towards God’s truth. Therefore, look for God’s goodness in your life. Look for it in past situations, believe God will work all things for good in your future. We look for God’s goodness because inevitably, we find what we’re looking for. 
5. The Rejoice Principle. Our final tool is prayer and praise. Prayer and praise not only change our situation, but they change our perspective about our situation. Take Paul and Silas when they were imprisoned. Instead of being overcome with anxiety and fear, they chose to praise, while stuck in jail and God acted powerfully and miraculously to set them free, quite possibly as a result of their praise! A lifestyle of prayer and praise changes our situations and changes us, and we start by practicing God’s presence. This means habitually reminding ourselves that God is with us. This is important because if we forget God is there, we won’t talk to Him. When we fail to focus on God’s presence, we don’t pray. Instead, we go it alone. We attempt to tackle our problems all by ourselves. However, when we realize that God is with us, instead of feeling down, we look up and being to respond appropriately, with prayer and praise!

Things to implement

1. Create declarations for the top 3 lies that I believe. Recite my declarations every morning 
2. Practice God’s presence for 10 minutes every morning. 
3. Make a God box. Get an old shoe box, and every time I have a worry, burden, or runaway sinful thought, write it down and put it in the box. After I write it down, I’ll pray and tell God that, “I trust him with this”. Then, if that worry pops and I want to wallow in it, I can go get the piece of paper out of the box, rip it up and tell God, “I’m not going to trust you with this”. If it’s big enough to worry about, it’s big enough to pray about.