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Winning the Battle of Your Mind

Challenge Central: a CBC devotional

By: Alicia Clarke

So, I had a unique situation happen about a month ago. Someone in the congregation placed a book in the pew where I usually sit, with the instructions to my husband to ‘give this to Alicia.’ Upon finding the book, I asked my husband who dropped it off, and because his mind was on the worship music he was nervously going to play, he didn’t notice who it was that gave me the book. So still, to this day, I don’t know who gave me the book by Louie Giglio entitled Don’t Give the Enemy A Seat at Your Table: It’s Time to Win the Battle of Your Mind…. But wow, I devoured it, and everyone should read it as it is excellent, and I need the giver to reveal themselves so I can say thank you, but I thought I would bless you with a few tidbits I drew from this book!

The author speaks about how the Enemy wants to tinker in our minds with temptations or thoughts that are not from God and that are contrary to God’s best for your life. The Devil appeals to our basic human needs for acceptance, worth, satisfaction, fulfillment, and happiness and offers a lie that sin will satisfy these needs. ‘Hey, this will satisfy your needs. Take a bite. You deserve to be happy.’ But sin is a mirage always over-promising and under-delivering! And if those thoughts are entertained long enough, they will win the battle for your mind.  Proverbs 14:12-13 states: “There’s a way of life that looks harmless enough; look again-it leads straight to hell. Sure, those people appear to be having a good time, but all that laughter will end in heartbreak” (THE MESSAGE). Sinful pleasures don’t provide peace or fulfillment. They lead to harm, separation, disappointment, and shame.

So how do we avoid sin? Stop gazing at the path marked Temptation. Go a different direction entirely and keep your eyes on Christ. Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” Nothing keeps you from sin better than keeping your eyes on Christ. Sin might feel good for a moment, but it’s always less than God’s best for you. 

This is where ‘renew the mind, engage the heart, enlist the body’ comes in! The way you go about stopping the Enemy from sitting at your table is by winning the battle for your mind, as the title of the book states! Winning the battle means replacing old, harmful thoughts with new, life-giving thoughts. The thinking of these new thoughts will engage your heart, which will result in doing different things – changed behaviour. One of the most powerful tools is the ability to memorize Scripture and recite it when the Enemy starts trying to tempt you as you can take control of what you think about, which should be God’s truths. For me, when anxiety kicks in, I have trained myself to recite 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love and discipline,” and it helps me ground myself that I have strength when focused on Christ. When tempted to sin, I recite 2 Corinthians 5:9, which states, “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.” It took time to make this a habit, but it certainly is a beneficial habit. It is putting into practice what Romans 8:6 states, “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.”

You can win the battle for your mind. Don’t give in to sin but take every thought captive by memorizing Scripture, letting God’s words renew your mind.

And if you were the giver of this book to me, thank you, as it certainly was well received, and I would love to know to whom I owe the gratitude!

What is Truth?

Challenge Central: a CBC devotional

By: Casey Korstanje

My youngest brother is a magician.

I mean that in the “hand is quicker than the eye, now you see me, now you don’t” illusionist sense. It’s a hobby he has enjoyed for going on 50 years. And he is good at it, very good.

I have seen him pull a rope through his body, float cards out of a deck, fly a hanky around the room, move coins without touching them, and bend a spoon with his mind.  There’s always a trick. I know he is manipulating me, but I rarely catch him out.

He likes close-up magic, where he does things right under your nose, and all you can do is smile and scratch your head.

His primary audience is the mirror in his basement or my brothers and me when we get together.

We were having dinner a few weeks ago, and as is his style, he quietly set a small box and a pack of matches on the table during dessert.

“Okay, we are going to burn some cards, and you will decide what burns and what doesn’t.”

He holds up an imaginary deck of cards, turns to brother #3 and says, “there are number cards and face cards. Choose.” And then he strikes a match. Brother #3 frowns, thinks and then says, “number cards.”

“Right, number cards.” He blows out the match and says, “they are gone.”

He turns to #2.

“In the face cards, there are males and females. Choose.”

“Men,” says #2.

“Right, you’ve burned them.” He lights a match and dramatically blows it out. Then he turns to me. “There are four queens left. You can save one of them.” He lights a match. “Diamond, heart, spade or club. Choose.”

I think, “he thinks I will default to heart so I won’t.’ ‘Diamond,’” I say.

He blows out the match and then hands me the little box. And, of course, inside the box, I find a crumpled, partially scorched Queen of Diamonds. I carefully examine the box, but it’s just a box.

Magic is, of course, about manipulation. It is insisting one thing is true when, in fact, something entirely different is true. The essence of this trick is guiding your audience along unwittingly to the goal you have in mind.

“There are number cards and face cards. Choose!”

Two lies in a row. There weren’t any cards at all, and it didn’t matter what you chose.

“Choose!” Number cards. Right, they’re gone.

“Choose!” Face cards. Right, you’ve saved them; the number cards are gone.

We live in a world where we are daily overwhelmed by manipulation and deception. This phenomenon has a name: post-truth.

Post-truth is you and I agreeing that a thing is true without demonstrable fact. It is frightening stuff. In a post-truth world, nothing is solid, nothing is safe, nothing is obvious, and nothing is true.

Many argue that post-truth is a new social movement, a reformation that will set you free.

Not true.

Post-truth is the “oldest trick in the book.”

Genesis 3:1

[1] Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

Post-truth corrupts and enslaves.

Isaiah 59:14

            [14] Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away;

            for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter.

So how do we survive in a post-truth world?

I commend you to the Word of God.

John 8:31–32

[31] So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, [32] and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (ESV)

Abide in his word, and you will know the truth.

Be Thinking Christians

Challenge Central: a CBC devotional

By: Lars Janssen

There are many complex circumstances in our world. Between such things as the war in Ukraine, Pride month, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Christians are often left wondering how to respond. The world we live in is undeniably complex and requires us to turn off the auto pilot. We must be thinking Christians.

Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 10:16, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Jesus’ analogy presents a complex scenario: How can a sheep speak peaceably with a wolf when wolves cannot be expected to be gentle with sheep?

Philippians 2:5 answers this question by telling believers to have the same sacrificial mindset that Jesus has. The Son of God humbled himself by becoming human and willingly allowed himself to be murdered at the hands of the “wolves”. How did Jesus’ perfect mind come to terms with that situation?

1. Jesus treasured God the Father more than his own life (see Matt. 10:28-31 and Phil. 2:8).

2. Jesus gladly paid the cost of obeying God the Father (see Matt. 10:34-39 and Phil. 2:8-9).

3. Jesus found joy in pleasing God the Father, even through suffering, and he was eager to share this opportunity with his followers (see Matt 10:40-42 and Phil. 2:9-11).

Notice that in the analogy Jesus used, we are sheep and not carnivores—not even small carnivores. Our teeth are blunt, our legs are slow, and our flesh is tasty. Think with me, my tasty and defenseless friends. We are not called to be war-like creatures because our struggle is not to fight people but to treasure God, to obey him at any cost, and to pursue God’s glory as our enemies seem to overtake and devour us.

This may seem discouraging, but we find hope in the fact that we are sheep, just like Jesus! Revelation 5:12 tells us that Jesus is the worthy Lamb that was slain and Revelation 5:5 called this same Lamb the Lion of Judah! With Jesus as our Lamb and our Lion, self-defense is not essential—he will bring justice in his time. So, by the Spirit’s grace, we are free to be lamb-like just as Jesus was.

Jesus opposed oppressive governments with submissive love, not anger (see Matt. 21:22). Jesus approached perverted movements with friendship and care, not condemnation (see Matt. 9:10-13). Jesus confronted decayed values with tears and a broken loving heart, not demonizing rhetoric (see Matt. 23:37-39 and Lk. 19:41-44). Think with me, my believing friends. We do not bite or kick or rail against those who oppress, pervert, or cause decay. We wisely and innocently offer hope in Jesus to the “wolves” even as they devour us.

Here’s your challenge, Central:

If you’ve had the auto-pilot on, will you prayerfully endeavour to turn it off and be a thinking Christian starting this week? Pray that you might enter complex circumstances holding God’s worth high, willing to pay any price in your pursuit of a relationship with Jesus, and using everything within reach to point the “wolves” in your life to

Jesus—especially when it feels like their jaws are closing down on you. Then watch what the Lion of Judah will do through you.