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

“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.

“If you want to truly change your life, you cannot just change your behavior. Even if you change your actions for a while, the original issue will just reestablish itself. That’s why Christianity has never been about behavior modification; it’s about life transformation.”

Groeschel emphasizes the importance of getting down to the root of our problems by addressing the false beliefs that have formed strongholds in our minds. Since those strongholds motivate our behavior, attempts to stop that behavior must include an effort to tear down the stronghold, or else the behavior will simply re-emerge.

“If Satan’s primary weapon is lies, then our greatest counter-weapon is the truth of God’s Word. Not just reading the Bible but learning to wield Scripture as a divine weapon.”

As a Christian pastor, many of Groeschel’s recommendations for new habits are based in religion, like studying the Bible. Here, Groeschel builds on an earlier statement that identifies Satan as someone who is trying to get us to act out on lies. If it is Satan who is acting against us, then the appropriate defense is learning to wield the Bible as a weapon against his influence. We also see Groeschel’s informal literary style at work; the second sentence is incomplete.

“Every thought you have produces a neurochemical change in your mind. Your brain literally redesigns itself around that thought.”

Groeschel interprets the principle of neuroplasticity—repeated thoughts create neural pathways for better and for worse, depending on whether the thoughts are positive or negative.

“Your brain is designed to look for patterns and create neurological pathways to help you keep thinking the things you keep thinking and doing the things you keep doing.”

Groeschel’s informal style is again evident. He uses short, repetitive phrases to explain the way the brain’s neuroplasticity creates pathways which enable repeated behaviors. His repetition of “keep,” “thinking,” and “doing” create a rhythmic effect.

“Thinking I can change a behavior just by removing the behavior is absurd. The behavior isn’t the root problem. The neural pathway that leads me to the behavior is the problem. If I stop a behavior, it will come back, unless I

1. remove the lie at the root of the behavior, and

2. replace the neural pathway that leads me to the behavior.”

Groeschel uses a bulleted list to makes his book accessible to readers. He occasionally uses bullets even if—as in the case of this quote—the bulleted material would work in a normal sentence structure.

“Why do we meditate on God’s truth and God’s love and God’s great deeds? One reason is because it allows us to get the maximum amount of spiritual nutrition out of our godly thoughts.”

Groeschel uses illustrations, both in the form of personal anecdotes and in reflections on everyday experiences. In this quote, Groeschel refers to mediation in terms of getting “spiritual nutrition,” an image that echoes his earlier image of cows chewing their cud.

“Don’t give up. Keep moving forward. Write it, think it, confess it until you believe it. You are rewiring your brain. God is renewing your mind. Then one day something will click. You will be fluent in truth. Automaticity. You will have changed your thinking, and it will change your life.”

Groeschel underscores the importance of building intentional habits, one of his major themes throughout the book. This quote also illustrates his occasional use of very short sentences—in some cases, incomplete sentences with just a single word—to emphasize his point. Groeschel tends to use extremely short sentences like this when exhorting the reader, a literary style which is likely from using rhetoric as a preacher.

“Part of the problem is that we tend not to see our own cognitive biases. Because if we knew it was a bias, we wouldn’t have one. That’s why it’s so important to think about what you think about. You cannot defeat an enemy you cannot define.”

Groeschel echoes one of his opening ideas, “thinking about what you think about.” He also echoes the opening chapter’s battlefield imagery when he speaks of defeating an enemy. This use of repetition, in which he interweaves ideas from different sections of the book, ties his theories and arguments together.

“You cannot control what’s happened or what will happen, but you can control how you perceive it.”

This aligns with Groeschel’s theme of maintaining perspective: We can change how we perceive the circumstances around us by holding onto thoughts of God’s presence and unchanging character. In light of that reality, we can interact with the immediate situation from a vantage-point beyond the momentary sway of our emotions.

“Thanking God or what he’s done is easy for most of us. But I’ve learned to also thank God for what he didn’t do.”

This quote encapsulates one of Groeschel’s most counterintuitive recommendations. He invites us to gain a different perspective by reevaluating our past; one of the ways this is done is by considering the “collateral goodness” that resulted from when our plans did not work out or when our prayers went unanswered.

“We are wise when we trust that [God] is working even when we aren’t aware of it. We are also wise when we trust the way he’s working, even when it isn’t the way we want. Because instead of feeling like a victim of random circumstances in a chaotic world, you see that you have a God who has protected you, often from yourself, in ways you didn’t realize.”

Groeschel insists on maintaining perspective, specifically a perspective rooted in God’s presence. This quote illustrates Groeschel’s technique of repeating terms and phrases, in this case making the opening clause of the first two sentences nearly identical.

“Once again, I want to be real with you: this is not easy. […] That’s the nature of a stronghold; demolishing them takes divine power and continual mental discipline. And some fall far more slowly than others. I’ve often found that when I think I have victory and the battle is won, there’s still battling left to do.”

This quote underscores one of the differences between Groeschel’s book and some of the popular trends in the self-help genre. It is not uncommon for self-help articles—and, in some cases, whole books—to attract readers by emphasizing the ease of their techniques. Groeschel does the opposite, reminding readers of the concerted effort necessary to achieve lasting change.

“Know that there’s a different way to look at the world. We can choose to make our cognitive bias the goodness of God. We can look at our circumstances through the lens of his mercy and grace.”

Groeschel uses the neuroscientific term “cognitive bias” to reinforce his theme of maintaining perspective. Once again, what he advises is rooted in God’s character. This quote illustrates Groeschel’s occasional use of direct address. The opening sentence is in the second-person imperative and urges the reader to action. The second sentence shifts to first-person plural, using the pronoun “we.”

“We’ve said that your life will always move in the direction of your strongest thoughts. That’s good news if you are thinking on things that are noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy. It’s bad news if you are thinking on things that are dishonorable, false, ugly, anxious, unjust, fearful, or just plain irrational. Our runaway negative thoughts can spiral out of control and lead our lives in the wrong direction.”

Our thoughts—positive and negative—create neural pathways in the brain. Groeschel shows us the importance of turning our thoughts in a positive direction.

“We get fixated on the presence of our problems, and we lose our focus on the presence of God.”

Groeschel again underscores the importance of maintaining a perspective that is rooted in God’s character. He also uses repetition, drawing our attention to the word “presence.” This line comes from the biblical story of Elijah fleeing into the desert.

“Even if everything is entirely wrong, I still have a God who is entirely righteous. Even if I were left with nothing, I still have God, and he is everything.”

Groeschel’s frequent use of repetition is shown in this quote—"Even if,” “entirely,” and “I still have”. Groeschel commonly repeats terms for rhetorical effect and sets whole sentences into parallel, repetitive structures.

“The most essential thing for your mind is for your mind to stay mindful about the presence of God.”

Here we again see repetition: “mind” / “mind” / “mindful.” “Stay[ing] mindful” shows how keeping God in mind is, for Groeschel, an intentional act rooted in daily habits.

“A few decades ago, neurologists believed the brain didn’t change after adolescence. We know today that is not true. Our brains are constantly evolving. Neurologists call the process neuroplasticity. The idea is that we can sculpt our brain just as we can sculpt our muscles with some strategic time spent at the gym. Your brain is rewiring itself all the time by creating those new neural pathways. Each time you think a thought, it’s easier to think that thought again.”

Groeschel uses short sentences and illustrations to explain the complex idea of neuroscience and to make it more accessible.

“Your circumstances may be bad, but your God is still good. He is near, his promises are still true, his love still unconditional, his grace still amazing, his timing still perfect. You may not like the what of what’s going on, but you can still praise God for the who of who he is.”

Groeschel notes that the perspective he advises is based on both God’s presence and character. It is precisely because God is good that a perspective rooted in his presence can be transformative. The second sentence of this quote gives a strong example of Groeschel’s repetitive phrasing—“his” and “still.”

“Praising God is all about perspective. A change of perspective leads us to praise God, and praising God changes our perspective.”

Groeschel expresses the cyclical, self-reinforcing nature of one of his recommended practices, that of praising God.

“Peace is preceded by prayer and praise. In a fight, you need to keep both hands up to protect yourself. Think of prayer as one hand and praise as the other. We need to keep both hands raised.”

This again echoes the book’s opening imagery of a battle. Groeschel advises his readers to think of the dual practices of prayer and praise as fists to be used in a fight. The first sentence incorporates one of Groeschel’s less common literary techniques, alliteration, or the repetition of consonant sounds. We have the repetition of the “p” sound: “peace,” “preceded,” “prayer,” and “praise.”