By: Elizabeth Haarberg

The War of the Mind

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking this SoundCloud link.

It goes without saying on a blog that is centered on Christ, that we are called to worship God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit above everything. And maybe most of the time or a lot of the time that is true in our lives. When we evaluate our thoughts, though, what do we find? We may desire our children to be the smartest or the most athletic, we want to be comfortable in our homes and jobs, and our marriages to be perfect; maybe we want all of these items to be checked off. The desire for these wonderful pieces of life are not wrong, but how much do these thoughts consume us and our actions?

Many think that worship looks like falling down on your knees and bowing to an item that is in front of us. I propose the war of worship is in the mind. What we think about, obsess over, deeply desire, becomes the very thing we worship. When we win the war in the mind, we win the worship war.

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 New International Version

We know that idols can be any good or bad thing in our lives that we focus on, but the break from the thoughts of idolized worship is won when we praise God, thank Jesus for what has been done for us, bending our bodies in humbleness to accept a change of mind in the moment when we have been swept away wanting something so badly that we are paralyzed by desire. Literally throwing up our hand to praise the living God who loves us, focusing on Jesus’ plan for us so we can begin to stop ruminating on, “How will this go?”

Praise is the way to take our eyes off ourselves and the issues that affect us and place them on Jesus.

“Sing to God, sing praises to His name, cast up a highway for Him Who rides through the deserts—His name is the Lord—be in high spirits and glory before Him!”
Psalm 68:4 Amplified Bible: Classic Edition

Worshipping anything other than God leads us into a dark place that will hold us hostage. There is a way out though.

“Sing to the LORD! Give praise to the LORD! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.”
Jeremiah 20:13

Letting ourselves be rescued by God when our minds are trapped by the worldly agenda is a relief to our soul.

If you find yourself ruminating on ideas that you can’t stop thinking about, stop, put some worship music on and praise God. Jesus will take care of the rest; just lay it at the cross for Jesus to take and let the Holy Spirit in to change your thoughts and focus.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado