Battlefield of the Mind Quotes From Joyce Meyer

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What are some of the best quotes from Joyce Meyer’s book Battlefield of the Mind? What’s their context and meaning?

In Battlefield of the Mind, Meyer explains that the devil corrupts our minds with negativity. The good news is that God is on our side. Meyer shows us how we can fight off the devil’s attacks and find joy and satisfaction with God’s positivity as our guide.

Keep reading for some of the best Battlefield of the Mind quotes.

Battlefield of the Mind Quotes

Here are eight thought-provoking Battlefield of the Mind quotes, along with context and explanation.

“Our past may explain why we’re suffering but we must not use it as an excuse to stay in bondage.”

Meyer writes that Satan can trap us in a negative mindset if he can convince us that a better future is impossible. Satan can do this by prompting us to see the world through what Meyer calls our “natural eyes,” which focus on the physical world. When we focus on the physical world, we can get caught up thinking about negative things that we see in our lives today, that we’ve seen in the past, that we tell ourselves, and that other people may tell us about our future. Focusing exclusively on these negative experiences is a self-defeating way to think about our future potential and can cause us to adopt what Meyer calls a “failure attitude.”

“Patience is not the ability to wait but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.”

Meyer proposes that we need to be patient to enjoy a positive life. Having patience means being positive while waiting for things in our lives. When we’re impatient for our lives to get better, we can end up trapped in a negative mindset because we have an excuse to not be positive right now. Meyer explains that we spend most of our lives waiting for something to happen. Many of us live in a pattern of expectantly waiting for something, briefly rejoicing when we get it, and then going right back to waiting for the next thing. While it’s human nature to always have a goal to work towards, if we don’t know how to be patient between our successes, we can easily be consumed with impatience and the negativity that comes with it.

“You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.”

Meyer explains that our thoughts shape our lives because they guide our words and actions. A positive mindset produces positivity that spreads throughout our lives, which brings positivity back to us and in turn helps us be even more positive. Likewise, a negative mindset produces negativity that’s likely to be met with reciprocal negativity by others. This, in turn, creates more negative thoughts in our own minds, leading again to more negativity—and often feeding the very problems we complain about. In this way, positivity and negativity each become a self-fulfilling prophecy in our lives.

“There are times when God leaves huge question marks as tools in our lives to stretch our our faith.”

Reasoning can be dangerous when it makes us question God’s plan for us. This can happen when we have experiences that are difficult for our rational minds to digest—like if we lose our job unexpectedly or a storm damages our property. At such times, we might get caught up asking “why” these things happened, and may end up in a place of confusion and negativity. Meyer advises us to instead turn to our faith, which can help us be at peace with the unanswered “why” behind our experiences more than reasoning can. She explains that God uses unanswered questions in our lives as a way to solidify our faith, helping us focus less on our worldly issues and more on our spirit.

“If you only do what is easy, you will always remain weak.”

Keeping our language positive when encountering adversity makes us more likely to succeed. But this does not mean that we have to pretend that difficult things are easy. We can acknowledge our suffering while keeping our language, and by extension, our attitude, focused on the positive. For example, instead of saying “this is too hard” in response to a challenge, we could say, “yes, this is difficult, but I know that I will be stronger for having gone through it.” Meyer encourages us to stay positive through adversity by reminding us that the Holy Spirit will always lead us out of the wilderness so long as we have faith, but our route will not always be easy.

“The pathway to freedom begins when we face the problem without making excuses for it.”

Satan tries to keep us in a negative mindset by impeding our self-awareness. He does this by convincing us to blame other people or difficult circumstances for our flaws and bad decisions. “If” and “but” are two words that Satan plants in our minds so that we keep making excuses for our problems. Meyer writes that we should be wary of thoughts such as “I could be positive if…” or “I would be positive but..”. Satan uses phrases like these to keep us from acknowledging our role in our problems and prevent us from developing the self-awareness needed for a positive life.

“The mind is the battlefield.”

The “battlefield of the mind” is not a metaphor. Meyer explains that, whether we know it or not, we are engaged in a constant and literal battle for the well-being of our minds. On one side of the battle is Satan, who tries to corrupt our minds and lives with his negativity. On the other side are Christians hoping to live the meaningful and fulfilling life God intends for them.

“I had an unconscious, vague sort of understanding that God loved me, but the love of God is meant to be a powerful force in our lives, one that will take us through even the most difficult trials into victory.”

Meyer says that many people don’t realize the power of believing in God’s unconditional love. When we believe in and internalize God’s love for us we feel worthy—worthy of His blessings, worthy of His love and love from others, and worthy of the positive life that He intends for us. Internalizing God’s love stops us from wasting time feeling guilty for things we’ve done in the past or feeling bad about ourselves and allows us to embrace positivity in our lives. Therefore, while it may seem elementary, Meyer suggests that people should spend more time appreciating what it means to be loved, as we are, by God.

Battlefield of the Mind Quotes From Joyce Meyer