Ever feel defeated? Like you’re fighting a constant battle?

Ever feel like your hopes, dreams, and goals are always beyond your reach?

Or…

perhaps you’ve come so close to stepping over that finish line you can almost hear the crowds cheering, yet somehow right about now, it seems like it’s all slipping away and feelings of defeat and failure are setting in.

I get that. 

I struggle at times with crossing that bridge from where I am to where God is calling me to be.  Do you know what I mean?

Photo by Jake Melara on Unsplash

We need to take a hard look at what keeps us from moving forward and what keeps us from taking that step out in faith.

Defeat may feel all too real and a victory may feel absolutely impossible, but we tend to forget something. Something big. We take a look at ourselves and a look at that mountain standing in our way and we turn right around waiving the white flag of surrender. We allow our minds to think thoughts of defeat and believe lies about who God is and who He isn’t. And the enemy didn’t even have to draw his sword.

Giving-up surrender is not the same as giving-it-up-to-God surrender.

That something big we tend to forget?

We forget what’s true…

• We forget that God is bigger than our fears.
• We forget His plans for our hopes, dreams, and goals are better than anything we could imagine or dream up ourselves.
• We forget He can do exceedingly abundantly more than what our minds can even fathom.
• We forget that all things are possible to those who believe and that nothing is impossible with God.
• We forget faith can move that mountain in our way and we forget about the victory in Jesus.

Maybe it’s not that we forget all of that truthꟷmaybe it’s that we forget it’s true for us. Either way if we’re honest with ourselves, even if we believe it we’re not always living like we do.

So we need to remember that the way we think affects the way we live, the way we serve, and the way we walk across that bridge to where we need to be.

Battle Ready and Taking Out the Trash

There is a battle to fight and be won but you know what? It’s not against that person who said that cruel thing about us, or that person who cut us off in traffic, or that person who is critical towards our ministry.

The battle is against principalities and powers. It’s against our own harmful way of thinking and what we are choosing to believe and the wiles of the enemy who dishes out the lies. And we take it.

The Word says we are transformed by the renewing of our mind but our mind needs some spring cleaning (and summer, winter, fall cleaning while we’re at it). It’s time to take out the trash, girlfriend, and I’m right there with you.

You may have heard me mention the book, Battle Ready: Train Your Mind to Conquer Challenges, Defeat Doubt, and Live Victoriously, written by my friend, Kelly Balarie.

Y’all this book helps us learn how to take out the trash. Yeah, that trash talk and those trash thoughts that won’t go down the garbage disposal.

Our mind is like a muscle and if we don’t train it right it will atrophy into fleshy thinking. It’s far easier to allow our mind to take us down dark winding trails than to push towards the light of truth. We feed it junk and expect it to be fit and healthy.

What? Yeah, we do that. But that ends today.

Here’s My Personal Battle Ready Book Testimony:

I have goals, one of which is to be healthy. I mean how can I run the race set before me if my muscles are like Jello?  Yours too?

Here’s what reading this book has done to change my way of thinking…

I would think thoughts like:

I need to get fit, I need to work out, I need to be healthy. Good thoughts, right?

Guess what?

For every good thought about fitness, I had a bad thought that challenged it. Thoughts like:

You won’t keep it up so why start? You’re too tired. You don’t have time. This is where you are now, so accept it because your best you is in the past so why try?

(Don’t even get me started on how deceitful our hearts can be. Can’t trust ourselves, can we?)

So as I’m reading Battle Ready, I stop and think this:

I could continue reading this book on the couch, or I can get my lazy self up and read it on the elliptical I spent a pretty penny on.

You know what?

That’s what I did. I got up.

We need to get up, girls. We need to armor up and maybe your struggle is not about exercising. Maybe your struggle is with depression, anxiety, giving up on a dream, a health condition, a financial crisis…

Our struggles may look different but our battle is the same. We need to fight for the sound mind God promises us that we already have. We need to fight for the truth that we have the mind of Christ. We need to fight because the enemy is on the prowl and wants to devour all that God created for good. He wants to devour us.

We know God has plans for us, but did we ever consider the enemy has plans for us too? Plans to harm us and take away our hope and our future. But he doesn’t win unless we let him.

The Battle Ready book awakened my mind to the things I already knew but needed reminding of. It brought to light things I hadn’t thought about before. It reminded me that God’s Word of truth needs to be what stands in our thoughts and hidden in our hearts. The message in this book got me off the couch, joining the YMCA, and sharing this hope with others.

Check it out and see what this life-changing message can do for you.

Grab your copy here.

 

 

As a matter of fact, grab a couple of copies and go through it with a friend. Battle Ready is a hands-on scriptural plan that teaches you twelve easy-to-implement, confidence-building mind-sets designed to transform your thoughts and, therefore, your life.

Take the free “find your Battle-style quiz” and create a personalized daily battle plan at www.iambattleready.com!

Freedom from faulty thinking is a choice. Make that choice today, friend. We have the mind of Christ.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.    Romans 12:2 NASB

Friend, one more thing. Could you do me a huge favor? Could you go to this link and vote for my post? Just scroll down to the comments and simply type “#6” in the comments on this contest page which is the number of my post in Kelly Balarie’s link up contest page. You could help me win precious time with a literary agent, editor, or coaching time with Kelly, and I would so appreciate your taking time to vote. Blessings, friend and thank you!

Love, Peace, and Freedom in Christ to You,

Doris