by Joyce Meyer
I was once the kind of person who could not be calm and feel safe until I thought I had things figured out. I worried about almost everything I didn’t feel I could control. I wanted to understand why things happened and when and how answers would come. I am forever grateful that God has renewed my mind through the study of His Word and has taught me to think thoughts that are beneficial rather than useless.
My mind, like yours, is capable of finding reasons that seem to make sense. Our reasons comfort us for a period of time and often cause us to feel in control of what is happening to us, but in the end we usually find that we were wrong and simply didn’t know it.
It is interesting that we feel comforted if we think we have life figured out, even though we can be wrong about what we think. Therein lies the danger of going beyond God’s Word and finding comfort in human philosophy. You may ask, “How can I ever know if what I believe is truth or deception?” We can know with certainty what truth is by having knowledge of God’s Word. Paul writes about this very subject:
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
Galatians 1:6–8 ESV
If the devil cannot get you not to believe in Christ, then he will agree with you that faith in God is fine and good, but that something needs to be added to the simplicity of the gospel. He has operated this way for centuries. For example, he used certain people to tell the Galatian believers that in addition to the gospel of grace, they also needed circumcision (see Gal. 5:1–10). He suggested to them that surely God would not simply forgive all their sins because they believed in Jesus, but if they would add some of their own works to what God had done, they would be doing the right thing. When that teaching started making sense to their minds, Paul chastised them because they had so quickly deserted the truth (see Gal. 3:1–6).
Consider this example: A Christian woman loses her husband in an accident and in her pain she searches for answers, but finds none. A friend at work tells her about a psychic that is amazing and suggests she make an appointment. Even though the Bible clearly warns us against getting advice from such people (see Lev. 19:26), the grieving woman consults the psychic. The psychic gives her some reasons concerning her husband’s death that make sense to her mind, and even goes so far as to give the woman a (supposed) message from her deceased husband. Now this woman may feel comforted, but she is deceived. If she feels convicted that what she has done is wrong, she further reasons that God has comforted her through the psychic. Once again she feels comforted, but she is becoming more and more deceived with each lie she believes. She may begin to see the psychic on a regular basis and descend deeper into deception each time she does. Just because something makes sense to our minds does not mean it is good or that it is godly.
Our lives would be so much sweeter and easier if we would simply believe what God says whether it makes sense to our minds or not. Some of us have no problem doing that, but highly intelligent people might. I am not saying they will definitely have problems, but it is a possible danger to watch out for.
If God has given you an exceptional mind, be careful that it doesn’t make you proud and, as Paul said, “puffed up” (1 Cor. 13:4 NKJV; Col. 2:18 NKJV). The greater our gifts, the more humble we should be. Gifted public speakers, amazing singers, highly intelligent people, and many other talented individuals need to make sure they realize their gifts are from God and not from themselves. Their abilities make them no better than anyone else; they simply allow them to do something that should be done for God’s glory and for no other reason.
Evolutionists may say it is impossible that God created from nothing everything we see in the span of just a few days. But the man or woman of faith reads Hebrews 11:3, which says, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible (NKJV). To the person who walks by faith, evolution makes no sense at all. How can everything we see just accidentally happen over millions of years? If humanity is an accident, then we have no value. But if we are created in the image of God, as the Bible says in Genesis 1:27, then our worth and value are beyond anything we can even imagine.
Satan uses the theory of evolution (and please remember, it is a theory) to steal the knowledge of who we truly are. He wants us to feel worthless and unloved because then he can control us with his lies.
Before you sink too far into reasoning and get yourself into trouble, remember this powerful instruction from Proverbs:
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
Proverbs 3:5–7 ESV
You’re Not as Smart as You Think You Are
Instead of simply stating, “You are not as smart as you think you are,” the writer of Proverbs says, “Be not wise in your own eyes” (Prov. 3:7 ESV). His words sound more polite, so nice that we may miss the point, so I want to be plain: We are not as smart as we sometimes think we are! We are not the only ones who are always right. We are not always the ones with the best answer. We don’t have everything in life figured out. And if we allow ourselves to be deceived into thinking otherwise, Satan has succeeded in one of his most cunning strategies against us.
This doesn’t mean we need to think we are dumb or ignorant, but it means that whatever we are good at, it is because of the grace of God alone. Let’s pray that our minds will be continually flooded with humility because humility keeps us safe. Those who humble themselves under the hand of God will be exalted in due time (see 1 Pet. 5:6). God can use in mighty ways those who don’t think more highly of themselves than they ought to.
Pride was Satan’s downfall (see Isa. 14:13–14), and it will be ours also if we allow it into our thinking. Pride causes us to lift ourselves up and put others down, and it causes us to devalue people Jesus deems valuable enough to die for. Pride distorts our thinking to the point where we actually may try to give God advice, as Peter did when he advised Jesus not to go to Jerusalem to be killed (see Matt. 16:21–23).
If you buy into the devil’s philosophies and vain deceits, you will be fighting a battle all of your life. But if you will believe God’s Word, He will fight your battles for you!
Paul said that the cross is folly to those who do not believe, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God (see 1 Cor. 1:18). Then he quoted from the Old Testament, saying, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart” (1 Cor. 1:19 ESV). Paul goes on to make several statements I will paraphrase: He says that God has made foolish the wisdom of the world, because the world could not know God through its wisdom, but it pleased God through the folly of preaching to save those who believe (see 1 Cor. 1:20–21).
It is truly amazing what happens in some people’s hearts when the gospel is being preached. It is as though a light comes on inside of them, and they believe. The words (God’s Word) become a reality in their hearts, and they gladly give their lives to Jesus and receive His life into them. No worldly wisdom can do this for a person. God further perplexes those who think they are wise in this world by using people whom the world views as weak and foolish as His instruments, working through them and thereby putting the wise in this world to shame. He does this so people cannot boast in themselves (see 1 Cor. 1:21–31). Christ is our wisdom from God, and as long as we follow Him, we will be wise men and women.
CHAPTER 19
Breaking Satan’s Assignment
A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
Proverbs 25:28 ESV
Satan is carrying out an assignm
ent against us, but we need not be concerned because we have the power through Christ to break that assignment. Jesus said that the thief (Satan) comes for one purpose—to steal, kill, and destroy (see John 10:10). Whether he wants to steal our dreams for our lives, our confidence, our relationship with God, our friendships, our joy, or our peace, he is a thief!
The One Who is in us is greater than the devil who is in the world (see 1 John 4:4); therefore, we don’t need to be afraid of anything he may have planned to harm us. God is for us, so nothing the devil or anyone else tries to do to harm us will ultimately prove successful if we continue to trust and obey God.
We have looked at some ways we can work with the Holy Spirit to keep Satan from gaining entrance into our lives, such as praying, putting on our spiritual armor, using our weapons, refusing to be angry, and being quick to forgive. But there is another important way we haven’t explored yet—self-control and discipline.
1 Peter 5:8 teaches us to be well-balanced and self-disciplined because our adversary, the devil, roams around like a hungry lion, seeking someone to devour.
Living a balanced life is impossible without self-control and the ability to discipline our thoughts, emotions, and choices. It also requires regular examination of our lives and asking God to reveal any area that may be out of balance. If He does, it requires us to take action to correct any excess.
I mentioned the need to be well-balanced in chapter 7, but now I would like to discuss it in greater detail. To be balanced, a person must never be extreme in any area, but strive to keep the right balance in every area of life. As stated, this requires diligence and an abundance of self-control and self-discipline. People have often asked me how I keep my priorities straight, considering everything I am doing. I finally found the perfect answer, which is that I am always straightening them out. Just like anyone, I find at times that I am doing too much of one thing and not enough of another. So I make a change for the better, and before long I recognize that the same malady has taken hold of me again in a different area than before. Satan is relentless in finding new ways to gain access into our lives, and exposing that is one reason I wrote this book.
Most people groan when I announce that I am going to teach on the subject of discipline, but without it, we will never become who we truly want to be or do the things we want to do. Satan has an assignment, and part of it is to prevent us from fulfilling our destiny or enjoying any area of our lives. We must be steadfast and determined. Yes, God will fight our battles for us, but we must also do our part, which includes living a well-balanced, disciplined life.
Free Will
God has given us a free will. He will not control us or force us to do the right thing. He will guide, lead, urge, and encourage, but He will not force us. God wants us to use our free will to choose His will, but whether we do that or not is up to us. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit (see Gal. 5:22–23), but like all good fruit that comes with the new birth in Christ, it must be developed. The more we use it, the stronger it becomes. We all use self-control to some degree, otherwise we would not accomplish anything, but the more we use it, the more we accomplish.
We are complex beings with minds that think, emotions that feel, and wills that want. We also have bodies that get tired, lazy, and hungry. They don’t always cooperate willingly with what we want to do, so we have to use the discipline and self-control God has given us. People who always do what they feel like doing play right into the devil’s hand, and if they continue, their lives will amount to nothing. Our feelings are a driving factor in our lives, and we are often tempted to let them rule us, but we must not. Satan uses our feelings against us by causing us to think we must feel like doing something in order to do it, but that is incorrect. We learn to live by principle rather than by our feelings. We should set godly standards for our lives and discipline ourselves to follow them. We cannot follow every thought we think, because many of our thoughts are dropped into our minds by the devil and would lead us down paths of destruction, so we must also discipline our thoughts and control them.
I encourage you to pray that God will show you when your thoughts are going the wrong direction so you can choose to think on something good that will bring life instead of misery to you. Several times each day you may find your mind drifting into areas that will bear no good fruit or may even lead you into sin, but this is not a problem as long as you recognize it as the devil’s attempt to get you going in a wrong direction. Then you can simply say, “No, I will not think like this!”
Every area of life requires the use of discipline and self-control in order to remain balanced. At any given time we can slip out of balance in an area simply because we are not paying attention to it. It is very easy to gradually eat a little more and then more and more—and suddenly realize we have gained weight. The reason is that we have not been alert and applying self-control when needed. It is important to learn that our bodies will crave more and more of whatever we give them on a regular basis. If I begin to eat one piece of candy from a box of chocolates every night after dinner, at first just one will satisfy me, but before long my body will crave two and then three—and if I give in to its demands, soon I will have a problem. I will gain weight, eat too much sugar, and perhaps feel bad due to the excess.
The flesh is greedy and cannot be satisfied with anything for very long. We always want more! No matter what a person owns, it can only satisfy them temporarily, and then they crave something new to excite them. We can easily see why we need to use self-control and not depend on our feelings to lead us in the right direction.
We must resist the devil at his onset (see 1 Pet. 5:8–9) and not keep procrastinating about adjusting areas that are out of balance in our lives; the longer we let problems continue, the more difficult it will be to break free from them. People think living a disciplined life means they will never get to do anything they want to do, and the truth is that our flesh won’t get to do what it wants to do, but our spirits will be happy and free.
If you think doing whatever you want to do anytime you want to do it is freedom, just look at the lives of people who are doing that. You will see misery and destruction. Perhaps not at first, but eventually the problems will start showing up. The apostle Paul wrote that he was free to do anything he wanted to do, but that not all things were expedient or the best for him to do, so he disciplined himself and chose the best things (see 1 Cor. 9:27, 10:23). True freedom consists not of doing everything we like, but in having the discipline to do what we should do.
God has given us free will and self-control. To realize that we are not simply assigned a fate that will take place no matter what happens is actually exciting. We have choices about how our lives will turn out, and if we make the right ones, we can live amazingly wonderful lives.
Our Desire to Control
We cannot control God, we cannot control all our circumstances, and we should not try to control other people. But we can and should control ourselves. We have self-control!
Stop trying to do what you can never do, and start doing what you can do. Think about how much less stress you would feel if you stopped trying to control things you cannot control and learned instead how to control yourself.
You cannot make people you care about fall in love with Jesus simply because you love Him. You can pray and be a good example for them, but you can’t force them. Joshua told the people that they should choose for themselves who they would serve, and that he and his house would serve the Lord (see Josh. 24:15). You can’t force people who are born with easygoing, laid-back personalities to be more aggressive. You can’t force your children to fulfill your unfulfilled dreams, but you must help them be who God has designed them to be. You can’t control people; you have to give them freedom of choice. That is what God does for us.
In Deuteronomy 30:19, He says, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may l
ive” (ESV).
When our children are very young, we make decisions for them, but as they grow older we must gradually relinquish some of that control and help them learn to make good decisions according to God’s will, not according to our will or to their own will.
The main reason we try to control circumstances and people is that we are selfish and afraid we won’t get what we want. We may also be controlling because we have been hurt or treated unjustly in the past and we are merely trying to protect ourselves. Either way, we need to stop trying to control things that are not ours to control and trust God to do what is right for us.
Practicing Self-Control
As I stated, what God wants us to control is ourselves. This is the only way to maintain a balanced life and prevent the devil from taking advantage of us. I’m not sure many people would think being out of balance is a way for the devil to gain entrance into our lives, but it is.
Let’s think about the importance of self-control in several aspects of your everyday life. You know that the enemy attacks your spiritual life, your thoughts, and even your relationships, but he does not limit his attacks to those areas. He will harass you in any possible way, including in practical matters such as your words, your finances, your time, and your appetite. Exercising self-control in these aspects of your life will help defeat him.
Words
Do you talk too much? Many will answer yes to that question, but there is another way we may be out of balance concerning talking, which is that we may talk too little. Although quietness is preferred over excessive talkativeness, some people are so quiet that they make others uncomfortable. Some people may need to discipline themselves to listen more and talk less, but some need to discipline themselves to talk a little more. Some people won’t speak up even when they need to. They allow others to take advantage of them because they don’t like to confront people who are behaving badly. If the Holy Spirit prompts us to confront someone in an attitude of love and we refuse because we are uncomfortable with it, we are just as guilty as those who confront everyone they don’t agree with even when the Holy Spirit is urging them to be quiet.
