In Joshua 1:9 God commands His people,
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
Note that God tells them to guard against discouragement and fear. Discouragement can be every bit as debilitating as fear.
Satan comes to discourage us when he sees God guiding us towards a breakthrough. If he can’t get us to destroy our lives, he will settle for keeping us bound up in anxiety and stress.
Not every thought that comes into our minds originates from our own brain. **Anxiety and temptation are ALWAYS an attack of the enemy. **
In order to have lasting peace, we have to make a habit of BEING AWARE that these thoughts are of the enemy and do not originate from our own minds.
And we have to battle them with the truth of God found in His word. Jesus himself used scripture to battle the enemy when Satan tempted Him in the wilderness.
(Mathew 4:1-11 & Luke 4:1-13)
In every battle, we will gain victory when we replace the lies of the enemy with the truth of God found in His word.
Dr. Caroline Leaf is a scientist who discovered that we can physically re-wire our brains and HEAL it from patterns of anxiety by consciously choosing what we focus our thought life on.
The thoughts we focus on create physical pathways in our Brain Matter!!
Healthy thoughts show healthy pathways on brain scans. Unhealthy or anxious thoughts show unhealthy, twisted patterns on brain scans.
BUT- people who choose to change their thoughts-what they focus on– are able to change the physical landscape of their brains and create NEW, healthy thought patterns.
Romans 12:2 speaks of this:
Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
It is interesting to note that the subjects in Dr. Leaf’s Study who saw the most positive change were the subjects who used bible verses to change the thoughts they focus on.
These subjects successfully rewired their brains simply by focusing on the truth of God’s word.
Brain Scans showed that Scripture changed the physical landscape of their brain matter- healing the twisted, broken patterns and causing them to be healthy again.
God’s word literally, physically healed their brains.
Isn’t that amazing???
Remember– we get to CHOOSE what we believe. We get to CHOOSE what thoughts we dwell on.
Every time the enemy attacks we need to fight back with God’s word.
Whatever the temptation, whatever the anxiety or disappointment or frustration, search for scriptures that speak God’s truth into the situation and go to war against the enemy and claim peace in heart and mind.