Throughout our Anxious For Nothing series, we've been exploring how we can win the war against worry and go into the battle against anxiety with God's help! This week, we're putting the finishing touches on the Apostle Paul, aka Dr. Paul's prescription for God's peace... which is to MEDITATE on good things.

MEDITATE

To be clear, I'm not referring to Eastern meditation practices... I'm referring to ACTIVE MARINATING. When you marinate your mind in God's word, you tenderize your heart to God's voice and your thoughts are flavored with the peace and joy of Christ. However, we also need to be aware of the reality that there is a battle for our thoughts... We are in a spiritual battle with an enemy that wants to drag us down by poisoning the thoughts in our minds.

SATAN ATTACKS YOUR THOUGHTS

See, Satan, the enemy of our souls, longs to destroy humanity and tries to do so by attacking your thoughts. Thankfully, Satan is not the master of your mind... YOU ARE!God wants to lead you as you walk in victory. As you go into battle for control over your thoughts, you should know there are 3 categories of thoughts Satan will try to use to influence you:

#1) Godless Thoughts - These are thoughts where God is not even factored in. When God disappears from your thoughts, so does your hope.

#2) Negative Thoughts - These thoughts are hard to shake. They can get so negative and dark that it's hard to hear others, and we find we can't hear from God.

#3 Amplified Thoughts - These are thoughts where Satan roars in your mind. His attacks are overstated, catastrophic thoughts. They're irrational and inflated.

Now, for many who are caregivers, such as parents of elderly parents or children with special needs, you may never eliminate all anxiety from your life. But, in every situation, we can learn to welcome God's thoughts.

WELCOME GOD'S THOUGHTS

When our thoughts are centered on God, we can turn to him in difficult situations much quicker. How can you tell thoughts that are from God from thoughts that are evil? Thoughts from God are:

#1) Inspirational - These are thoughts that are from the Spirit of God and rooted in Scripture.

#2) Factual - God's thoughts are always factual. He says to marinate on the TRUTH. Who is the truth? JESUS!

See, the GOD OF PEACE is with you... and he wants to give you the PEACE OF GOD!Jesus stepped into the anxiety of a broken word, took on death and all of our troubles at the Cross, and exchanged our anxiety for God's peace. Guys, when anxiety attacks, Jesus is your defender, and HE IS FIGHTING FOR YOU! Let the Holy Spirit transform your thoughts so you can rest in His truth as He fights with you in the war against worry!