The battles we have in our minds can be so crippling. Most of the time we know these battles aren’t real or worth the energy we put into them, but it can be hard to get past them. Here are four steps you can use to help gain victory over the war that’s in your mind.
Winning the Battle in Your Mind
The mental battles we face can be so loud sometimes in our heads, it can be hard to see past them. It can be hard to remember that we can have victory over our mind.
I’ve had something recently that I’ve really been struggling with, and it got me thinking. There are so many things that we need to get victory over in our minds. Things that come up in life that can really start a battle in your mind.
In this post I wanted to go into how you can gain victory over these battles in your mind. I’m going to bring you four steps that can be applied to any mental battle that you are struggling with. These four steps can help you gain victory over the war that’s in your mind.
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My Mental Struggle
These mental battles that we have can be so hard to overcome. Even though we know that they really have no weight if we say them out loud, when you’re struggling with it in your mind, it can feel so real and so crippling.
I had something that I was really struggling with and finally received some clarity around it and knew I wanted to share what I had learned. So that you too could get victory over whatever it is that you’re struggling with mentally.
A few months ago, I turned 40. Forty is one of those numbers where you hear so many people struggle with turning 40. Leading up to it, I was like, I’m excited to turn 40. Forty doesn’t scare me!
So when I turned 40, it was no big deal. It was awesome. I was excited to start this new decade of my life and excited for what God was going to do in the next 10 years of my life.
My struggle with turning 40 didn’t start until a few months later. Let me invite you into my brain for a second. Don’t be scared.
Here’s what I’ve been struggling with mentally.
I’ve been struggling with the fact that my life is statistically half over. You know, if I live to 80-something, then that means I’ve already lived half my life. That’s struggle number one that I’ve been going through.
Struggle number two is, and again, I’m going to say it out loud and you’re going to be like, “Courtney, that’s not true,” but remember what I said – in your mind these things seem so hard and so real. When you say it out loud, it’s like, okay, I know that’s not true, but it still doesn’t take the struggle away, right?
So another thing I’ve been struggling with is that I’ll never feel the way I did in my 20s. That was the peak of my health. The way I could move and how healthy I was. I’ll never be that healthy again. That was it. It’s just all downhill from here.
Those are the two things I’ve been struggling with.
I think part of the reason that I’ve really been struggling is because we had babies late in life. I have a four-year-old, and an almost 15-month-old. I had my youngest daughter, Sophia, when I was 39.
I think my two young girls are playing a big part in this because I want to be around for their lives. It makes me so sad to think that when they’re my age, I’ll be 80.
So this fact is just throwing more into the mental pot of turmoil in my head right now.
>>My life is statistically half over.
>>I won’t be as healthy and young as I was in my 20s.
>>I want to be around to see my girls grow up because I had them when I was older.
So when the battle is raging in your head, what do you do? What do you do when these mental battles are stealing your joy and peace?
Sometimes these mental struggles can be paralyzing and it can be hard to do anything else but mull over in your mind these thoughts that you have that really aren’t true.
Here are the four steps that I discovered through this journey of dealing with turning 40, so I can share them with you.
Whatever it is you’re facing right now in this present season of your life that’s really a struggle for you, I believe that these steps will really help you in winning this battle and having victory over the thoughts that are consuming your mind.
Step 1: Get in God’s Word
Step one, which might not be a surprise, is to get in God’s word. Find out what He says about the situation that you’re struggling with because His word is truth, right? And if we know the truth, it’s going to set us free.
His word is the ultimate truth, so His word is where we need to be turning to whenever we have any problems in our lives.
We need to find out, “What does God say about this struggle that I’m having, this battle that I’m having in my mind?”
You might think, “Well, the Bible doesn’t say anything in there about turning 40,” and that’s true. But He does have things to say about whatever it is you’re struggling with. It might not be the exact situation you’re going through, but the principles in the Bible can be applied to whatever you’re struggling with.
Even if the Bible doesn’t necessarily talk about, let’s say, comparison on social media (as you know, Instagram wasn’t around back then), there are verses about being content with what you have, or passages on not looking to other things for your security. The principles in these verses can be applied to whatever you are struggling with.
So how do you find it in the Bible? How do you find whatever it is you’re looking for?
There’s a lot in the Bible, and you can’t just flip through and read the whole Bible in one sitting.
This is where we turn to Google.
I want you to Google “scriptures about [blank],” whatever it is you’re struggling with.
Let’s go back to the example of struggling with social media and comparing your life to others.
You could Google:
“scriptures about being content”
“scriptures about not comparing my life to others”
“scriptures about what God says about me and finding my identity in Him, not in social media”
Literally, Google whatever you are struggling with. Google will spit out so many things that can help point you to where you need to be in the Bible.
A lot of these websites will list various Bible verses related to the topic you searched for. Read each verse displayed and see which one stands out. I believe that’s how the Holy Spirit nudges your heart in the right direction.
This has happened to me before; one verse will just stick out. You feel a little nudge in your heart, and that’s the one I want you to go to.
Next, go to that scripture in the Bible.
Take the book, chapter, and verse, and open your Bible. Go to that chapter, and read the whole chapter or at least the parts before and after to get context.
It’s important to know what’s being said before and after to get the full picture. You’ll gain more understanding around that verse because when one sticks out, it’s the Holy Spirit saying, “This is the one you need to help you get victory over what you’re struggling with.”
Another thing you can do instead of Googling is to pray about the problem and see if something comes to mind. If so, I believe that’s the Holy Spirit bringing a verse to your mind to help with that situation.
Side note: This is why it’s really important to spend time in the word. If you don’t hide the word in your heart, the Holy Spirit will have nothing to pull from.
When we read the Bible, it gets into our spirit. Now, I don’t memorize all these verses. I’m actually really bad at memorization. But every time you read the Bible, it gets stored in your heart like a deposit.
When something happens, or you’re praying about something, the Holy Spirit has those verses you’ve read before to pull from and bring back to your mind.
That’s what happened to me, and I’ll tell you what my verse was. The Holy Spirit brought the verse about Job to my mind, how God blessed the second half of Job’s life more than the first. I knew that was at the very end of Job, so I didn’t need to Google it. I didn’t know the chapter and verse number, but I knew it was at the end of Job.
This is why it’s important not just to take the verse that comes to mind and run with it but to read the context. I didn’t read the whole chapter but the parts before and after. By doing that, I found another verse that was helpful, which I wouldn’t have found if I had only clung to the first one.
The verse that originally came to my mind when I was praying about it was Job 42:12:
“So the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning.”
How amazing is that? After all Job went through – his trials and struggles – God blessed him even more.
I relate to Job because of everything we’ve gone through – losing Sam and having three miscarriages afterward. It was a very Job-like season of life. Losing a child is never something you get over; you learn to live with it, but it never really goes away.
How awesome is that promise that the Holy Spirit lovingly gave me? That God blessed Job’s second half of life even more than the first. That’s such an amazing promise to cling to. But when I read the parts before and after, I found another promise.
Job 42:16 says:
“Then he died, an old man who had lived a long, full life.”
How beautiful is that? Isn’t that all of our prayers? To die in our old age and look back, saying we lived life to the full, spent time with the people we love, and didn’t waste it. At the end of life, that’s what matters most.
Losing Sam cemented that for me. Family and friends, the people in your life, are the most important thing. God created us for relationship. He didn’t want to be alone, so He created us. If we’re made in His image, we also crave relationships. We don’t have to do life alone.
Okay, so now you have these scriptures the Holy Spirit has given you. What do you do next?
Step 2: Pray the Scripture
So, step two is I want you to pray that scripture the Holy Spirit led you to. I want you to write it down. You can put it on a Post-It note, in a journal, a notebook, or wherever you’ll see it so you can pray it.
I actually have a list in my notes app on my phone – it’s my prayer list. I have it in a format where you can check it off, and I have different prayer requests that I pray every day. I’ve added these verses to my prayers, and I put them in a prayer format. I don’t just quote the scripture. I don’t just say, “So the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning.”
I made it personal. I said, “God, I thank you that you are going to bless the second half of my life even better than the first, and that I will die at an old age with full mind and full mobility, having lived a long, full life.”
So, make it personal. Whatever verse it is, turn it into a prayer, and then pray it every day. When you have your prayer time, just pray this prayer you’ve written.
I believe praying God’s scripture never returns void. It always accomplishes what it’s sent out to do. There’s nothing greater you can pray than God’s word, because that is truth, ultimate truth. And that truth will set you free.
Step 3: Speak the Promise Out Loud
We have our scripture, we’ve written out a prayer, and we’ve written the scripture down. Now I want you to speak that promise that God showed you over your mind.
2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us to take every thought captive. Every thought that enters into our mind. If it’s not a good thought, we need to be able to take control of that thought. Then we replace the lie that’s in our mind with the promise that God gave us every time.
For me, every time I think, “My life is half over,” or “The best part of my life is over,” or “When my girls get old, I’ll be old too,” all these lies that are consuming my mind – I literally stop and say, “God is going to bless the second half of my life even more than the first. I will live to an old age with full mind, full mobility, having lived a long, full life.”
Literally, every single time.
At the beginning it might be multiple times a day that those thoughts come in. But I immediately stop and say, “No, I’m taking this thought captive. I’m not going to let this lie sit in my mind anymore. I’m going to replace it with the truth that God has told me, because I believe the truth over that lie that’s trying to paralyze me.”
Think about it. If I really started believing that lie – that my life is over and the best part has already happened – then what do you think will happen?
The second part of my life won’t be greater than the first, because I’d start believing and living out that lie instead of getting victory over it. It’s going to own me, and that lie will come true. My second half of life will not be better than my first.
Whatever lie is in your mind that you’re trying to get victory over, if you don’t replace it with God’s truth, it will start becoming true in your life.
I don’t want that for you, and I know you don’t want that either. So you just have to physically stop when you have that thought in your mind and say, “No,” and then speak the truth that the Holy Spirit gave you.
I believe what He gave you is the exact thing you need to get victory over this problem in your mind, because He knows what you need.
He knows exactly what you need to defeat that lie. So use it. Over time, you’ll see that you won’t have to use it as much. Those lies won’t come as often, until eventually they stop.
This has happened to me before, so I know it’s true. Now, at the beginning, you have to really be diligent. Don’t let that lie sit in your mind, because when it sits in there, it starts growing roots. Then it gets harder and harder to remove, and it starts growing bigger and bigger until it overwhelms you, and you don’t see any way out.
So, you need to stop every time and replace that lie with the truth. Eventually, those thoughts will stop coming into your mind altogether. Then you’ll know:
I have won victory over this battle in my mind.
Step 4: Understand it’s not a “One-and-done” Thing
The first time you have this thought enter your mind and you replace it with the truth that the Holy Spirit showed you, you might think that’s all you have to do. Just that one time. Unfortunately, that’s not true. It’s not going to be just one and done.
You can’t replace that lie just one time and then never have to do it again. It’s not instant.
Winning the battle over your mind is going to be a repetitive thing that you’ll have to do until it goes away. It will stop, it will, but you have to be persistent in replacing that lie with the truth.
And like I said, it’ll be quite a bit at the beginning, because that lie has been in there, growing roots, and you’ve been feeding it, thinking about it, so it’s grown. It’s going to take a little bit to pull those roots out and throw them away altogether.
But eventually, you will get victory over that lie because you’re replacing it with God’s truth, and God’s truth always wins over the lies of the enemy.
Persistence is key. You can’t give up. Just keep going. You will taste the freedom from that lie that’s been holding you in bondage and taking control of your thoughts and mind. Then you won’t struggle with it anymore.
Action Step
So, what’s one thing you can do to put this into action in your own life?
As you’ve been reading this post, what is the one thing that came into your mind? I know there’s something. If you’re struggling with something, you have already thought of whatever it is.
The Holy Spirit has already started tapping at your heart’s door, saying, “Hey, you know this thing right here that you’re struggling with? Yeah, that’s the thing.”
So, whatever it is that He brought to your mind, that you’re thinking about right now, I want you to start with step one. I want you to either start praying about it and see if the Holy Spirit brings something to you, or go to Google and search “scriptures about [blank].” Start there.
You have to start with finding your weapon against that lie, and the weapon is the Word. So, you have to find the scripture that you’ll be able to use to win victory over whatever it is you’re struggling with mentally right now.
And I know, going through these steps, you will get freedom from this.
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