For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
You’ve probably heard variations of Ben Crenshaw’s quote: “I am about five inches from being an outstanding golfer. That’s the distance my left ear is from my right.”
Jack Nicklaus put it this way, “The game of golf is 90% mental and 10% physical.” Arnold Palmer advises, “Success in golf depends less on strength of body than upon strength of mind.”
I like and agree with Steve Elkington’s line, “The mind is the greatest club in your bag. It’s also your Achilles’ heel.”
Intellectually, you don’t have to tell me there is a mental aspect to golf, but why do I ignore it? Author Michael Leonard is right when he states, “All it takes is one mental slip-up to lose your momentum and turn a good round into a bad one.”
Sometimes, I finish a round more mentally exhausted than physically fatigued. Honestly, sometimes the bigger battle is not the course, or the conditions, or my trash-talking competitors, but it’s the battle in my mind.
As one golf instructor reminded me, without mental resilience, it’s unlikely you’ll play your best golf. And if a good golf game starts with mental resilience, then a good mental game starts with attitude.
This is true of my spiritual life as well. If you are tired of struggling with your own or the enemy’s bombardments against your mind, I hope these verses will help you press on in your walk with Christ.
“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh …” With our minds, we both conceive of and receive thoughts.
Then we either reject those thoughts or accept them. I find it true that I give my mind the most control by accepting false ideas.
Yet even if our minds have been congested by numerous conversations with what others have said or by my own self-talk, I don’t have to fight them in the weakness of the flesh. We all have the power of the Spirit!
“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”
This one-two punch of “divine” and “power” is best translated from the Greek as “absolutely God”! When we fight a battle this way, the false thoughts we have rehearsed and believed lose their foothold in our minds.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
When we give room to our culture’s thinking, to Satan, or to our own speculations, we inevitably begin to contradict the truth of God’s Word.
When He gave us the freedom to think for ourselves, it set us apart from the animals. This ability to choose our own thoughts is both extraordinary and terrible.
We don’t need a lobotomy. Instead, we eliminate every thought that is contrary to the knowledge of God. Once and for all, we need to do what the Word of God says to do with the lies we believe—Destroy them!
We must take captive our outrageous and unhealthy thoughts and make them obedient to Jesus Christ.
As we strategically choose our thoughts, our goal is to fill our minds to a greater degree with the principles and truths found in the Bible. If you have a “default” setting in your brain, it should always be set to the Word of God!
Prayer: (from Psalm 26:2-3) Examine me, O Lord. Test my mind and my heart. I want to walk in Your truth.