Diet & Wisdom Appetizers

Pat Benatar wrote, Love is a Battlefield (most of us know how tough relationships can be); Joyce Meyer wrote the best-selling book, The Battlefield of the Mind. Many of us are battling depression, battling the bulge and battling addictions. And let’s not forget the battle of the sexes. Goodness – am I the only one exhausted? Life can be war sometimes!

I think out of all these battles, the most difficult to fight, conquer and win is the Battlefield of the Mind. (Excellent book, BTW!) The hardest part of eating right and getting healthy this year has been the constant mental fencing and pairing my mind is engaged in on a daily basis.

I’ve finally figured out (duh!) I can’t afford to let my guard down for even an instant when it comes to my food addiction. I overcame my cookie/cupcake baking challenge yesterday, but felt a heaviness, not quite depression, but more one of despair all day yesterday. How can I be so upbeat and positive one day and the next, quite the opposite? There is definitely a battle raging in my mind.

Heaviness of spirit, depression, despair, these are all strategies used by the enemy to trip us up and get us confused in our minds and spirits so we’ll doubt God even cares about us - prompting us to ask “Are you there God?” Well of course He’s there. He’s not gone anywhere. We’ve just dropped our guard and let the enemy capture our thoughts.

Holy Scripture says it better than I ever could in the book of Ephesians 6: 10-12 (NLT): 10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

Apparently if we hope to be victorious resisting the devil, a certain amount of accessorizing is necessary. Dressing for success doesn’t just mean designer clothes and fashionable jewelry – but a real power suit means donning some necessary battle gear. The Word of God tells us we need to be outfitted from head to toe: shoes of peace, breastplate of righteousness, a shield of faith, the sword of the spirit (the Word of God) and the helmet of salvation.

Once we’re fully outfitted, we need to be certain that we’ve got a warrior’s mentality which means we can’t afford to be weak and slack and let those negative thoughts or attitudes control us. We must constantly be renewing our mind, thinking positive thoughts and even on rainy, gloomy days, we can’t focus on the way the climate makes us feel, but stand on the truth of God’s word and be prepared to fight!

Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death. ~ Author Unknown

“3For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We 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 10:3-5 (NIV)

PRAYER FOR TODAY: I pray for a sound mind that helps me to take all negative thoughts captive. Help me to don my armor and stand strong fighting this battle and help me never to let my guard down. I ask all these things in your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.