I used to love getting the kids ready for school. The tears began to roll, and I silently said to myself, I don’t like this. My getting-kids-ready-for-school days were definitely over. They were sharing deals on notebooks, paper, markers, pens, and crayons. Scrolling through Facebook, it seemed that everyone was talking about back-to-school-specials. This particular afternoon, however, I experienced a tsunami of emotions. My heart was sad, grieving, and even fearful of all the changes. Our youngest had married eight months earlier and while I’d been enjoying my newfound freedom after 33 years of parenting five children, I was also very aware of how life had changed. Eve experienced defeat in comfort and ease.“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” ( Isaiah 43:19 NIV). Our circumstances do not determine a life of joy and victory. Oh, dear one, how foolish we are to think the garden is where our lives will be trouble free. “Jesus won the battle in the wilderness by being preloaded with the truth. We defeat the flesh every time we act in a way that lines up with our new, born-again identity rather than our old, self-centered programming.” ( source) We defeat the world every time we believe the Bible words rather than culture’s ever-changing belief system. “We defeat the devil every time we choose to listen to God’s truth rather than the enemy’s lies. And God always provides a way of escape ( 1 Corinthians 10:13).” ( source) However, the devil cannot make us do anything. He masks his thoughts as our own thoughts to get us to act in disobedience to God’s will. However, he can taunt, tempt, and trouble a believer by putting ideas and thoughts into the mind.

“Satan cannot dwell in a true believer because a true believer is sealed by and inhabited by the Holy Spirit. “He doesn’t call the qualified He qualifies the called.” ( source) Paul teaches, ‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind’ ( Romans 12:2).” ( source) “When we become a new creation in Christ, no one pushes the delete button to remove the old ways of thinking rather, we must participate with God to reprogram the computer, the mind.

Enough sharon jaynes