Gò0dNews for Everyone
What You Think
R
by Aimee Hays
ecently, I ran an anonymous poll on social media
do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight
asking people to share what they were struggling
with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they
with, and the overwhelming majority of responses I
have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish
received were related to thoughts that people were having.
arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against
Our mind and thoughts are of our spirit, and battles and
the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to
conflicts are waged there in our mind. As children of God,
make it obedient to Christ.”
we must recognize the conflicts that take place in our mind and carefully consider how we will respond when intrusive thoughts cross the battlelines. We must realize that even though we have thoughts, we are not our thoughts. The Bible tells us to think on these things in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Often, we battle thoughts that begin early in life—we look in the mirror and scrutinize the image looking back, the moment that a loved one walked out and never came back, the phone call that changed everything, or the lie that person told about you that festers. The list of thoughts that conflict our minds can be lengthy. As you know, most conflicts that take place have both winners and losers as
What do you think about what happened to you? Has
recorded in history. The Anglo-Zanzibar War was a military
it held you captive or did it become the catalyst to push
conflict fought between the United Kingdom and the
you beyond enemy territory? Take back what the enemy
Zanzibar Sultanate on August 27, 1896. The conflict lasted
has stolen. Tear down the conflicting stronghold set up in
between thirty-eight and forty-five minutes, marking it as
your mind today. According to Proverbs 23:7, “As someone
the shortest recorded war in history.
thinks within himself, so he is.” We are not victims of
Battles have set time frames; however, when the
circumstances. If you have chosen to believe otherwise, this
battle never ends and the thoughts become persistent and
verse sounds like nonsense. But again, science is proving
all-consuming, we become engaged in war even if it is
what Scripture already says. Science has shown us that
short-lived. The enemy looks for the high ground to set
when we think, we build thoughts, and these thoughts
a stronghold in our minds to win the war. Destructive
become physical substances in our brain. We were created in
thoughts will be set on our weakest targets. The mental
the image of God, full of love and grace. What might happen
aspect of what we think of ourselves—how we see
if we started believing this?
about what happened to us—becomes a target. According to 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, “For though we live in the world, we
38 // August 2021
About The Author
ourselves, how we think others think about us, thinking Aimee Hays is a native Roman and member of Redemption Church. Aimee has been married to Tony for 25 years and has raised two sons—Hunter who is now married to Abbey Williams Hays and Landon who is a Sophomore at Southeastern University.
