Free Power Thoughts: 12 Strategies to Win the Battle of the Mind by Joyce Meyer Page B

stumble. When they needed to move quickly, they gathered the material of their garments and pulled it up so they could walk or run freely. They would gird up their clothing.
    When the Bible tells us to “gird up the loins” of our minds, I believe it means to get our minds off of everything that would cause us to stumble as we run the race God has set before us. I think it may also refer to concentrating on the thing at hand rather than allowing our thoughts to wander all over the place. God has a good plan for each of us, but we must walk the path that leads us to it. Focus and concentration are both real challenges in our world today. We have a great deal of information coming at us all the time and to keep our minds on what our purpose is requires great determination and even training.
    You might get up on Monday and fully intend to start your day by spending time with God in prayer and Bible study. Then you intend to get three specific projects finished that day. You need to go to the grocery store, get some maintenance done on your car, and finish cleaning out a closet that you started working on last week. Your intention is good, but if you don’t focus on those projects you will surely be pulled away by other things or people. Girding up your mind is another way of saying “stay focused on what you need to do.”

    Uninvited Guests
    Do you experience thoughts flashing through your mind that seem to come from nowhere? They do come from somewhere and they are often designed to hinder you from reaching your goals. These thoughts are actually uninvited guests looking for a home and it is our job to tell them that we have no room for them.

    How would you respond if people that you barely knew showed up at your front door with their baggage telling you that they wanted to move in? Well, of course you would tell them they were not welcome and no matter how persistent they were, you would hold firm to your decision that you could not provide a home for them. We should take this same attitude with flashing thoughts that are in reality uninvited troublesome guests who come knocking at the door of our mind.
    For example, if you decide to take some college courses to improve your education and when you go to register thoughts begin to flash through your mind like: You are too old to go to college. It will be too hard for you and take too much time. You didn’t do that good in high school and college is much more difficult. Stop right away and ask yourself if these thoughts are yours or if they are coming from somewhere outside of you. Are you choosing them or are they uninvited guests that the devil has sent to you. Instead of offering them a home, “gird up” your mind and think the way you want to think. Stay focused on your goal, not the fear the devil is trying to instill in you. Think like this: There will be a lot of people younger than I am in my classes, but I have a good mind and a destiny to fulfill, so I’m going to get myself enrolled and I’m going to do my very best. Even if I’m the oldest person in the entire college, I’m not too old to improve myself.
    You may want to get out of debt, live a healthier lifestyle, improve your marriage, or a variety of other things. Whatever your specific situation is, be diligent to gird up the loins of your mind and get rid of any thoughts that are standing in the way as you seek to move forward.

    Think about It
    Have you developed an ability to concentrate and focus or do you allow uninvited guests to get you off course?
     
     
    Have Some “Think Sessions”
    I believe in having a “think session” every day. If we were to sit down regularly and say to ourselves, “I am going to think about a few things for a few minutes,” and then deliberately think about some of the things the Bible tells us to think about, our lives would improve dramatically. Disciplining ourselves to think properly by having “on-purpose think sessions” will train us to begin thinking