Winning the Battle of the Mind

In the movie Kung Fu Panda 3, Master Shifu makes this statement: “Before the battle of the fist comes the battle of the mind.”

How true. The spiritual battle we’re in starts with the mind. It’s command central. We are the air traffic controllers of our minds. Just as an air traffic controller decides what plane flies where at what altitude, we decide what thoughts will come into our minds.

The way we’re thinking will determine the way we’ll be living. We have to start with the thoughts that come into our minds and be very careful about what we let in.

As the old adage says, “You can’t stop a bird from flying over your head, but you can stop it from building a nest in your hair.” In other words, we can’t stop whatever random, evil, or strange thoughts that come knocking on the door of our imaginations, but we don’t have to invite them in for lunch.

I love what the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4: “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (verse 8 NLT).

The Message puts it this way: “Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.”

When those thoughts of fear or worry come to you at three o’clock in the morning, run them through the grid of Philippians 4:8. Say, “This is not from God. This isn’t true, and it isn’t helpful. I reject this thought, and I’m replacing it with another thought from Scripture.”

That is how you win the battle of the mind.