I often wake up in the morning and am confronted by an immediate wave of anxiety related to what I’ve got on my plate or a general sense of  “Not being good enough.”

     I can’t run away from these thoughts. Jumping straight to email or checking the news only serves as a temporary distraction, but it won’t defeat these thoughts. Diving straight away into my work doesn’t work either. If I do, I generally feel an absence of joy and patience throughout the day and at the end of my day, when I hit the sack, those anxious thoughts are often still right with me.

     I am not surprised that I encounter this. This is spiritual warfare and the war can’t be won unless I fight it. A spiritual battle can’t be fought with physical weapons. A spiritual battle must be fought with spiritual weapons—namely, Truth. My number one approach to spiritual fighting is to declare the Truth over myself. I read scripture out loud and agree with it verbally. Almost every day I put on the armor of God, praying it out loud, changing the way I think (click here for an example). I play a song based on scripture and listen to it actively by agreeing with its phrases. (Here’s a good one.) I go to life group and share openly with guys and let them pray over me (Thanks Sean and Doyle last week.)

     We can walk in victory, but we cannot pretend there’s not a battle. Battles must be fought and fighting requires intention and courage. Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. In all these thing we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus who loves us.