Sports are the leisure activity of choice for many people around the world when it comes to both spectating and participating. They can be fun, exciting, nerve-racking, and everything in-between as one team tries to defeat another. For some sports the competitors play offense and defense while in others they may only play one or the other. For us believers we need to play offense and defense when it comes to what we think. First, let’s begin with defense. Second Corinthians 10:5 tells us, “ casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” From this scripture we can see that we need to remove any thoughts in our minds that go against the knowledge of God. However, just like it’s important to remove these bad thoughts it’s equally important to play offense and replace these thoughts with thoughts that are in agreement with God’s word. Romans 12:2 tells us, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” With all this said if we are going to “win the battle of our mind” then we need to not just cast out ungodly thoughts but we should also be replacing those thoughts with God thoughts. An example would be rejecting a thought of fear with a scripture such as Second Timothy 1:7 which tells us, “God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind.” Doing this takes work but in the end it will help strengthen our faith in God and enable us to live out our destinies as we agree with what He says and not what the devils says. The choice to do this is of course up to us and may the Lord help us not to be lazy and put forth the effort to put these things into practice.
- John Carlos