My mind is my worst enemy. I feel emotions very strongly. Because of this, most of my spiritual battles are internal as I daily fight against anxiety, fear, discontentment, and/or anger. This is just how sin most obviously manifests in my life.1
I regularly grow weary of the battle to keep my mind fixed on things above, as Colossians 3 instructs us. However, in my daily Bible reading, my church small group, and conversations with my husband, certain Bible verses began to stick out as reminders and encouragement to keep fighting for joy, contentment, peace, and rest. So, I began memorizing them.
If you’re in a season of spiritual dryness or struggle, maybe these verses will encourage you, too. (All verses are referenced in the CSB version.)
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments and every proud thing that is raised against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.
Psalm 90:12
Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.
Galatians 6:7-9
Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.
Psalm 121:1-4, 8
I lift my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber. Indeed, the Protector of Israel does not slumber or sleep. The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forever.
Isaiah 26:3-4
You will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace, for it is trusting in you. Trust in the Lord forever because in the Lord, the Lord himself, is an everlasting rock.
Ephesians 5:15-16
Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise—making the most of the time, because the days are evil.
James 1:5
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him.
Romans 7:24-25
What a wretch man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.
2 Peter 1:5-8
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 6:4-11
Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 5:22-25
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Ephesians 6:12-13
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
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Mental health issues, like anxiety and depression, are a complicated subject. I want to be sensitive in how I talk about my own struggles for the sake of those who struggle with mental health in different ways. For more context about my own struggles with anxiety, you can check out this article. ↩
