Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind

A second “abnormal” condition for the Christian is that of a wandering mind. Meyer admits that an inability to concentrate may have biological explanations, and she encourages her readers to consider taking B vitamins and making sure they are getting adequate rest. She also maintains, though, that an inability to concentrate may be a mark of spiritual attacks by the devil, who attempts to distract people and make them lose focus. Meyer offers examples of her own wandering mind: how she loses focus in church occasionally, only to return her attention to the sermon and realize she’s missed the last few minutes, or how she drifts off into inattention in the middle of a conversation with her husband, Dave. When this happens, she redoubles her focus, suspecting that a spiritual attack might be behind it: “I have decided that if the devil went to the trouble to attack me with a wandering mind, then perhaps something was being said that I needed to hear” (89). 

Meyer also includes a “wondering mind” in this category of mind-states: a mind that is always questioning, doubting, or spiraling off onto tangents prompted by its inquiring nature. Meyer advises that rather than letting our brain wander off into uncertain questions about the future, it should instead focus on assertions of trust and belief. 

Although Meyer addresses some potential medical causes of inattention (e.g., vitamin deficiency and fatigue), the book does not address the role that various forms of mental illness and neurodivergence can play not only in concentration but also in propensity to doubt, worry, etc. This may make her arguments less relevant for readers coming from such backgrounds.

Chapter Lessons

• A wandering mind can be a symptom of a spiritual attack.
• People should take special care to go back and review any content they might have missed when their minds were wandering.
• Christians should focus their mental life on assertions of belief, not on unanswerable questions.

Reflection Questions

• Meyer suggests that there can be either biological or spiritual reasons behind a wandering mind. How do you think you can tell which one it is?
• What do you think of Meyer’s warning about a “wondering” mind? Is a questioning nature always problematic, or are there exceptions?

The next type of “abnormal” mind that Meyer brings up is the confused mind. Much like the wondering mind that she addressed in the previous chapter, she suggests that a “reasoning mind” can lead to confusion. Humans are predisposed, she says, to try to use their own logical faculties to figure a situation out. She diagnoses two cautionary elements regarding human rationality. First, reasoning tends to fixate on a single idea with the assumption that one can understand an issue by dissecting the problem: “Reasoning causes the mind to revolve around and around a situation, issue or event, attempting to understand all its intricate component parts” (96). Second, when dealing with spiritual matters, Meyer believes that obeying the Holy Spirit without asking why is the proper course of action: “When God speaks, we are to mobilize, not rationalize” (99).

Meyer uses an example from her own life, in which she delayed responding to the Spirit prompting her to give away a dress, only to realize that obeying that call was the proper response all along. While human understanding can be a gift of God, Meyer emphasizes that it is not as necessary to the Christian life as belief and obedience are. Using the admonition of the apostle Paul, she encourages her readers to focus their knowledge on Jesus, trusting in him and avoiding the impulse to try to understand everything. 

While this emphasis on accepting God’s will is central to Christian teaching, Meyer goes further than many writers in advising against reasoning out problems. This partly reflects the nature of charismatic Christianity, which emphasizes direct spiritual revelation. By contrast, branches of Christianity that view the influence of the Holy Spirit in subtler terms are more likely to stress the necessity of reflection to determine what one should or shouldn’t do. 

Chapter Lessons

• Reasoning, the human impulse to dissect a problem or issue to understand it, can get in the way of Christian obedience.
• When God calls Christians to do something, they are simply to do it, not seek understanding of the situation.
• The Christian life centers on trust in Jesus, not trust in one’s own logical faculties.

Reflection Questions

• Have there been times in your life when you relied too much on your own understanding rather than following God’s call?
• Do you experience God’s call in the direct, literal way Meyer describes? If not, do you still find her recommendations in this chapter useful?

The next two “abnormal” states for the Christian mind are doubt and unbelief, which Meyer treats as distinct. Whereas doubt is a form of wavering and indecision, unbelief is a more serious state, representing disobedience to God’s call. Doubt often takes the form of thoughts, ideas, and mental statements that stand against the statements of Scripture. Meyer argues that doubt is a spiritual attack from the devil—an attempt to undermine the Christian’s belief. This experience should not, however, lead the Christian to agonize over whether they really have faith: “It is not that we don’t have faith, it is just that Satan is trying to destroy our faith with lies” (107). Meyer draws on the biblical story of Jesus walking on the water and inviting Peter to join him, encouraging her readers to keep looking at Jesus rather than looking at the wind and waves (elements that might give rise to doubt): Christians simply have to choose to hold on to belief. Doubt can ultimately give rise to the more serious state of unbelief, which constitutes disobedience against God’s call to put one’s trust in Jesus.

While Meyer’s distinction between transient doubt and sustained unbelief is fairly typical of Christian literature, her overall approach to doubt is more stringent than that of many Christian writers, who argue that questions and disappointment are a natural and even healthy part of spirituality. 

Chapter Lessons

• Satan will speak lies into the believer’s mind to get them to doubt the Word of God.
• Doubt can eventually lead to unbelief, which is a form of disobedience.
• The remedy to doubt is to commit to believing in God’s truth rather than the devil’s lies.

Reflection Questions

• What are some methods you can use to reinforce your faith so that doubts have less sway over your mind?
• Have you ever felt doubt solidifying into unbelief, as Meyer describes?

Another “abnormal” mind-state—though very common—is that of anxiety and worry. Such worry is diametrically opposed to the peace that Jesus promised to his followers: “It is absolutely impossible to worry and live in peace at the same time” (119). Peace is a state that must grow in our lives as a fruit of the Spirit’s work, and it only grows by abiding in Christ. Meyer marshals many passages from Scripture that encourage Christians to let go of their worries and to trust God for their needs: “Let’s learn to use the time God has given to us for what He intended. Life is to be lived—here and now!” (124). One of the ways to fight worry is to learn the Word of God so thoroughly that one can recall encouraging Bible verses when worries arise. 

It’s normal to have worries, but Christians are not to give in to worry, but instead to rest their hearts on God. Meyer draws again on her own experiences, telling stories from her early married life, in which worries over finances dominated much of her attention (but did not worry Dave, who was content to trust in God). It is God’s job to look after people who trust in him: “Do your part, but do not try to do God’s part. The load is too heavy to bear” (130).

Psychological research broadly supports Meyer’s emphasis on living in the moment, which is associated with greater contentment. However, Meyer may downplay the psychological and social factors that can make this prescription particularly challenging for some people, whether in a religious or secular context.

Chapter Lessons

• Worry and anxiety rob the Christian of peace, which is their promised inheritance in Christ.
• One of the best defenses against worry is to memorize Bible passages.
• It is God’s job to watch over people, so Christians should not let anxiety force them into doing God’s job.

Reflection Questions

• Reflect on a time when you struggled with worry. Were you able to overcome that anxiety, and if so, how?
• Why do you think the Bible has so many encouragements and commands in it regarding the avoidance of worry?

A further “abnormal” state of mind is a judgmental, critical, and suspicious mind. Meyer argues that Satan uses these tactics not only to attack the individual Christian but also to undermine relationships between believers. While Christians are often tempted to judge others, Meyer points out that the Bible is clear that God alone is the judge, so when Christians become judgmental, they are stealing a role that properly belongs to God. A judgmental mind is also a sign of a deeper spiritual problem—the sin of pride—which centers oneself and one’s own way of seeing things. The Bible specifically forbids judging others, and Scripture warns that people who do so will reap judgment on themselves. 

A judgmental mind is a feature of a negative mind, so Meyer repeats her thematic refrain of choosing positivity over negativity. She also encourages her readers to trust in God’s judgment and to maintain a balanced mind with regard to themselves. Christians are neither called to judge nor to be naïve, but rather to deal wisely and discerningly with others while leaving ultimate judgment in God’s hands.

Chapter Lessons

• Judging others comes from the sin of pride.
• The Bible forbids Christians to judge others, as this is God’s role.
• Christians should commit to a positive mindset, not a negative one, even when others’ flaws are in view.

Reflection Questions

• What are some ways that you can foster positive thinking toward others instead of judgment, criticism, or suspicion?
• Do you find that you are more judgmental when you have a broadly negative mindset?

While an overly busy mind can be a dangerous thing for a Christian, the other side of the coin is also true. An overly passive mind can give the devil opportunity to tempt and distract a person: “An empty, passive mind can be easily filled with all kinds of wrong thoughts” (149). To explain this, Meyer draws on a traditional distinction in Christian theology between sins of commission (sins one commits, either by action or thought) and sins of omission (sinning by foregoing right action) while reflecting on her early years of marriage. At this time, Dave struggled with a passive sensibility, finding it hard to work up the motivation for many things. Whereas Meyer was prone to sins of commission, Dave was prone to sins of omission until God convinced him of the problem. Dave then began to get up early every day to spend time in Bible study and prayer, and soon a new spiritual vigor was evident in his life. The passive person must resolve to get their mind right with God—renewed through the Word and prayer—and then their actions will be transformed as well: “There is a dynamic principle shown throughout God’s Word, and no person will ever walk in victory unless he understands and operates in it: right action follows right thinking” (153).

Chapter Lessons

• Passivity leaves openings in one’s mind for Satan to occupy with temptations and false thinking.
• Passivity is a sin of omission, in which Christians are not doing what they should.
• To solve the problem of passivity, one first needs to learn to think rightly, and then right actions will follow.

Reflection Questions

• Do you see yourself as more similar to Dave or Joyce Meyer?
• Are there certain sins of omission that you see in your life right now?