“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Proverbs 23:7a
Recently, I’ve written about three attacks on our emotional hearts along with the tools that bring restoration. Today’s post addresses the last attack on our hearts: believing the enemy’s lies, which prevent us from fulfilling our God-given destinies. Using the tool of telling yourself the truth by renewing your mind with God’s Word is the remedy for having a healthy heart.
The battle is won or lost in our minds. That’s the place the enemy of our soul initiates his warfare attacks. When we agree with the enemy’s lies, we give power to it and the lie dictates our behavior. Lies built upon lies form an almost impenetrable fortress in our mind.
My diagnosis with thyroid cancer at age 27 devastated me. I allowed fear and vain imaginations to take over and had myself dead, buried, and my husband remarried. And that’s when the Holy Spirit arrested my thoughts and asked me if I knew for sure that would happen. After telling God no, that I wasn’t sure that would come to pass, He gave me a principle to live by: Tell yourself the truth. We renew our minds and are transformed by repeatedly telling ourselves the truth from God’s Word (Romans 12:2a).
To get rid of the lies we believe and let in God’s truth, we need to tear down the stronghold. “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” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). We need to make the lies bow down to God’s truth and His Lordship and we destroy the lies by replacing it with the Word of God. By thinking on His truths and declaring them out loud, brick by brick, we dismantle the fortress of lies.
Often, I will create two columns on a sheet of paper. In the left column, I write the lies I’m believing and on the right side, I list the corresponding truth with a supportive scripture verse. I renounce each lie and declare the truth out loud. Some lies are like a recording on repeat in our thoughts that we’ve heard in our minds since childhood, creating a mindset that we live by. Therefore, developing a new mindset of truth, is a process. Playing scriptural truth constantly in our thoughts will cause truth to eventually become our mind’s default option.
Instead of sweeping lies under the rug of your heart, tell yourself God’s truth.
“The difference between worldliness and godliness is a renewed mind.”
Erwin W. Lutzer
Relevant Reflection:
What lies are you believing and what truths do you need to dwell on and declare?
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
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