The Greatest Battlefield

When you think of the greatest battlefields our world has ever known, you might think of places like Waterloo, Gettysburg, Normandy, or, close to home, Shiloh. I read a quote by Casey Treat that said, “The greatest battles are fought in the mind.” The more I think about that, I think it is true. Why? Because so often what I think comes out in my life. If I think about food, I usually go get something to eat. If I think about a task I need to do, I try to go do it.

I think this may be what Jesus is discussing in Matthew 5:21-31. Where does murder usually come from? Anger. Where does adultery usually come from? Lust. Those start in the mind. It is not enough to just not do the act, but you must deal with the thoughts. Fight the sin war in your mind before those thoughts become your actions. We need a godly filter in our minds. Just like an oil filter cleans the bad out of the oil, a scripture filter can clean the bad thoughts out of our mind. I have a thought, and I ask myself, “Is this in accordance with the word of God?” If it is, fine, but if not, I need to throw that thought out. I think that is what Philippians 4:8 is discussing. If anything is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent, worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

So often our problem comes in our filter. We have a filter not trained by the word of God but by the world. This thought is ok because that is what I want or that is what everyone else is doing. Be careful what you watch, listen to, and who you hang around with because those things can get into your thinking and in turn into your life (Proverbs 4:23). It is like the boat. For it to be successful, it must be in the water but not let the water in it. If we want to glorify God, we must live in the world but not let the world in us.