Starved | Page 39

STARVED view you and what God thinks about you. He magnifies your weaknesses so you begin to lose confidence in yourself other people, and God. Satan wants nothing more than to lead you to believe that you came from nothing, are nothing, will always be nothing, and are going nowhere. What a lie! He works through people, sometimes even through your parents or peers, to reinforce his lies. If you believe him, it will directly affect your actions, habits, character, and destiny. Jesus has given His followers authority over the enemy (Luke 10:19). All Satan can do is lie and attempt to convince you to believe his lies. How can you know the difference? The Word of God, the Bible, should always be your definer of truth. You ultimately choose whether you will accept the lies of Satan or believe the Word of God. Renew Your Mind The Word of God says that when we renew our minds, our lives will be changed: "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect" (Romans 12:2, NLT). Renewing your mind means to do away with ungodly thought patterns and to replace them with godly ones. It is impossible to do this without God's help. The world can help you change a behavior, but God helps you change your beliefs and actions, which begins with a change inside the human heart. For thoughts to become beliefs takes time and repetition. Did you know that memorizing and repeating information have a physical effect on your brain? Scientific experiments seem to 42