Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life

“Our lives are always moving in the direction of our strongest thoughts. What we think shapes who we are.”

Groeschel lays the foundation for his argument that the power of thought can condition the brain toward similar thoughts in the future. This assertion is based on the brain’s neuroplasticity, though he doesn’t use that term here

“Your mind is a battlefield, and the battle for your life is always won or lost in your mind.”

Groeschel uses the imagery of battlefields, warriors, and strongholds in the first two chapters. This quote relates the idea that the mind is an arena of conflicting thoughts which war against each other. Negative thoughts, whether they come from past traumas or a spiritual enemy (who Groeschel identifies as Satan), need to be counteracted by positive truths, just like launching a counteroffensive on the battlefield.

“[…] this point is crucial: a lie believed as truth will affect your life as if it were true.”

This idea appears several times throughout the opening chapters; Groeschel repeats it because it is central to his argument. Groeschel says that some of the thoughts and ideas that motivate our reactions to the world might, in fact, be untrue. Nevertheless, our instinctual responses do not act as arbiters of truth or falsity. This makes it all the more important to ensure that our motivating ideas are anchored in truth.