PDF Summary:Battlefield of the Mind, by Joyce Meyer

Positive thoughts are the key to a happy life because they lead to positive words and actions. When we think positively, we treat ourselves and other people better, enjoy healthier relationships, make better choices, and are resilient in the face of adversity.

But being positive can be difficult. In Battlefield of the Mind, Joyce Meyer explains that the Devil makes it his mission to corrupt our minds with negative thoughts. Luckily, we have God on our side. Meyer shows us how we can thwart Satan’s attacks and find happiness and fulfillment with God's positivity as our guide. In this guide, we provide additional context on the Christian principles that inform Meyer’s work and supplement her ideas with a wide range of perspectives, including those of theological scholars, self-help authors like Eckhart Tolle and Mark Manson, and proponents of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

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Further, critics allege that her theories might cause harm to her followers because blaming such common experiences on the Devil ignores the real-world influences that might bring them about. Not only does it discount environmental factors that might cause a person to be unfocused or anxious, for example, but it also discounts the many cognitive and psychological issues that can affect a person's thinking, such as ADHD, dementia, depression, anxiety, OCD, and many others, which can lead to feelings of complacency, doubtfulness, and being judgmental.

Her theories also discount the often beneficial effects of some of these “afflictions,” such as allowing your mind to be unfocused, which can allow for creativity to flourish, and thinking rationally, which can counter emotional responses to setbacks.

Part 3: Common Negative Mindsets

When Satan’s negativity goes unchecked, it can derail our lives. Meyer explains that if negative thinking becomes habitual, we can become so lost in unhealthy patterns that a positive life becomes impossible. Meyer calls this being stuck in a “wilderness mentality” (we call it a negative mindset) because no matter what our actual circumstances are like, a negative mind can make life feel like an unnavigable wilderness.

A Negative Thought or Negative Thinking?

There’s a difference between having negative thoughts and becoming trapped in a cycle of negative thinking. Instead of viewing every negative thought as an attack from the Devil, as Meyer suggests, experts urge us to remember that negative thoughts are a normal part of the human experience. Some negative thoughts are justified and can help us process our experiences. However, if we realize that most of our thoughts are negative or that being positive is starting to become difficult, we may be entering a cycle of negativity (what Meyer would call a “wilderness mentality”).

The following strategies can help us break a cycle of negativity:

• Accept negative thoughts (don’t tell yourself that having them is wrong) and then let them go. (We can use the analogy of a thought as a balloon that floats away once we’ve acknowledged it).

• Practice being grateful

• Avoid thinking in absolute terms like “never” and “always.”

• Have realistic (and flexible) expectations. If we have unrealistic expectations about something we cannot control, we set ourselves up for disappointment. Keeping a flexible mindset about the future can help us take successes and setbacks as they come.

Meyer outlines 10 common negative mindsets that can trap people and some insights on how to escape them.

Allowing the Past and Present to Determine the Future

Satan will try to convince us that the positive future God has in store for us is unattainable. To avoid becoming discouraged by his suggestions, we should let our spirit rather than our rational minds inform our view of the future.

(Shortform note: Our brains are evolutionarily predisposed to weigh negative experiences more heavily than positive ones, which helps explain why a negative past/present can make it hard to be optimistic.)

Avoiding Responsibility

It’s our responsibility to take ownership of a positive future. Responsibility means using our talents, skills, and opportunities to serve God to the best of our ability. Satan will try to convince us to pass up opportunities for self-improvement.

(Shortform note: Research has shown that giving back to others in an area we feel passionately about (what Meyer might call an area where we have taken responsibility) is a powerful way to add happiness and meaning to our lives.)

A Self-Defeating Attitude

Satan tries to get us to focus on how hard everything is so that we give up. Using positive language when we talk to ourselves can help us stay positive and faithful during hard times.

(Shortform note: Research supports the idea that a self-defeating attitude negatively impacts our health. Multiple studies have shown that a “negative emotional style” can even make us more prone to both getting sick and feeling sicker when we do.)

Being Indignant

Satan will try to convince us that we shouldn’t have to suffer at all, and that something is going wrong in our lives if we do. It is important to remember that God expects us to endure some suffering and that we can use it as a crucible to strengthen our faith.

(Shortform note: In The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Mark Manson also suggests that there is utility in suffering. According to Manson, humans are biologically hardwired for suffering and dissatisfaction, and these feelings can actually be useful because they fuel a desire for self-improvement.)

Being Impatient

Satan will tell us that we shouldn't have to wait for anything in our lives and tries to make us indignant about not having what we want right now. Humility can help remind us that we will be ready for God’s blessings when He says we are.

(Shortform note: Impatience and indignation combined can be a particularly destructive force in our lives. When we experience a setback that feels unfair, we're prone to making rash, self-destructive decisions.)

Making Excuses

Satan wants us to believe that other people are the source of our bad behavior so that we blame them rather than focus on self-improvement. While it can be painful, we need to acknowledge that we are responsible for our choices.

(Shortform note: While Meyer argues that blame stems from an attack by the Devil, experts explain that blame comes from our desire to avoid painful feelings such as shame and regret.)

Pitying Ourselves

If Satan can convince us that we are victims rather than protagonists, he can stop us from taking control of our lives. Rather than feeling sorry for ourselves, we can remember that our relationship with God makes us powerful.

(Shortform note: One way to tackle self-pity is to frame negative thoughts as a challenge. For example, if we think we could never run a 10-minute mile, then a 10-minute mile would become our goal.)

Feeling Unworthy

Satan tries to convince us that we are unworthy, unlikeable, and unloveable. But God loves us unconditionally, as we are.

(Shortform note: Unlike self-esteem, which is based on external factors like our appearance, performance at work, and so on, our self-worth concerns our perception of our existential value. Basically, our self-worth is a measure of how entitled we feel to “take up space” in the world. While self-esteem can fluctuate based on external metrics of success, our self-worth is more deeply rooted and thus more constant.)

Being Jealous

Jealousy comes from comparing ourselves to others, which is unnecessary. Satan uses our insecurities to fuel our jealousy. While being “better” than someone else may increase our value in our eyes, it does not increase our value in God’s eyes.

(Shortform note: Studies show that technology and social media exacerbate our insecurity and jealousy. This happens because people generally only post the very best moments and details of their lives online so that when we scroll through social media, it looks like everyone else’s lives are better than ours.)

Being Disobedient

Satan will try to lure us off the path that God has laid for us. When things in our life are going well, it is tempting to ignore God's messages and keep doing what we want to do. But honoring God and having a positive life means obeying His will.

(Shortform note: Obedience to God in the Christian theological tradition does not mean following a specific, predetermined plan for our lives the way Meyer describes it. In fact, experts explain that believing that God has a specific plan for our lives is “theologically flawed.")

Part 4: Cultivating a Positive Mind

Our Weapons Against Satan

Meyer explains that the only way to rid ourselves of Satan and his negativity is to cultivate a God-centered mind. Once our minds are focused on God rather than on all of the things Satan tries to make us focus on, we can enjoy a happier, more fulfilling life. God’s word is our most effective weapon in this fight.

Meyer explains that we use the word of God in three forms:

• Scripture: The written word of God provides us with an arsenal of positive messages that we can use when our mind is under attack from the Devil. When we know scripture well, we can easily recall helpful passages from the Bible to apply to any situation where Satan tries to corrupt our thoughts.

(Shortform note: Simply reading the Bible is often not enough to properly interpret it. Most readers don't have the theological training or expertise to reliably uncover personal meaning from the Bible that is consistent with the text's original meaning, which weakens Meyer’s argument that we can rely on scripture to fight Satan.)

• Praise: Praise is thanking God for His blessings in our lives, without reservation and coming from a place of peace and contentment. If we're truly thankful and content regardless of our circumstances, there will be no place where the devil can penetrate our minds.

(Shortform note: Our language has a powerful impact on our perception of reality. Therefore, simply changing our language may make us better able to give thanks for the positives we have in life, even if our circumstances haven’t changed. For example, we can substitute the phrase “I have to” with “I get to,” and instead of saying that we're “going” through something difficult, we can say we’re “growing” through something difficult.)

• Prayer: We can grow our relationship with God by communicating with Him through prayer.

(Shortform note: In her discussion of prayer, Meyer does not mention the Our Father (The Lord’s Prayer). A Christian understanding of prayer comes from this prayer in particular. For Christians, it serves as a model for how people “should” speak to God. It is the foundational Christian prayer and is the only prayer that Jesus actually taught His followers to pray.)

Thinking Like Jesus

Meyer explains that Jesus is the paragon of maintaining a positive mind in the face of suffering. Therefore, as we try to live a positive life ourselves, we should try to emulate his mindset. To channel Jesus’ positivity, we must:

• Be Positive: To think like Jesus, we should always look for something positive to think, do, or say, even when we face situations that seem hopeless or joyless.
• Keep Our Mind on God: To think like Jesus, we need to make our relationship with God part of our daily lives.
• Trust in God’s 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.

Cultivating a Positive Mind With Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Many people looking for guidance in cultivating a positive mind have found success with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT is a technique in which psychiatrists help people retrain their brains so that they can break negative thought and behavioral patterns.

As Judith Beck explains in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, we may experience persistent negative thoughts if we hold negative “core beliefs” about ourselves. These negative core beliefs fall into one of three types: helplessness, unloveableness, and worthlessness, all of which lead to a distorted self-image and can cause us to make self-defeating choices.

Practitioners of CBT help people to examine the validity of their negative thoughts by leading them through reasoning and thought experiment exercises. Through these exercises, patients may find no true rationale or evidence behind their negative thoughts. Realizing that negative thoughts come from negative core beliefs as opposed to reality can allow people to feel hopeful, giving them the courage to try things that they may otherwise have talked themselves out of.

Meyer doesn’t advise seeking out a method such as CBT to conquer your negative thoughts, but her advice tries to effect the same results. By recommending that you focus on positivity, she asks you to retrain your brain away from negativity. By urging you to accept and internalize God’s love, she seeks to counter your feelings of worthlessness. And by advising that you keep God’s relationship in the forefront of your mind, she tries to offer a specific, practical method by which you can achieve these ends.

Thus, while psychologists encourage their patients to avail themselves of methods derived from scientific study, Meyer focuses on methods derived from spiritual study.