the danger of prejudice

Since time began we’ve had to live with the poisonous practice of prejudice. Most wars in history have been started because of prejudice and hatred. The Holocaust came from this same poison, and so did slavery. In Genesis, Cain hated Abel, and down through the ages, hatred has never stopped. Hating people is hard work, and it kills everything good in life. Even various religious sects that have long been committed to loving their fellow man have lashed out in hatred because of allowing pride to fill their hearts.

You and I may not agree with everything another person believes or does, but we have no right to hate them because of it, and we certainly shouldn’t mistreat them. God never told us we have to approve of everyone’s beliefs, choices and actions, but we are commanded to love everyone. God hates sin, but He loves every sinner. He hates stubbornness and rebellion; He loves the person who’s stubborn and rebellious.

It’s hard to believe how many denominations and independent churches there are today, yet there’s only one Bible, one message. It’s evident that God has one thing to say to all people—a single plan for our conduct and relationship with Him. But over the years, because of our pride and narrow-mindedness, we’ve felt the need to develop a myriad of churches and church groups—even different versions of the Bible—to suit our own strict interpretations of what we believe the Bible says.

I’ve come to realize that none of us are 100 percent correct. Most of the things we fight over are petty. In Matthew 23:24, Jesus told the Pharisees that they strained out a gnat but swallowed a camel. They had gotten so picky about the little things, it prevented them from dealing with the things that were truly important. As long as we allow prejudice, hatred and disharmony to continue to have a place in our lives, we’ll be powerless to stop it. Only agreement and unity will bring the power to defeat prejudice. We must not allow the evil in this world to win the war. We can defeat hatred by allowing love to overcome our divisive attitudes toward others.

-joyce meyer

battle field of the mind 1

Did you know that we are in a war every day? We see the casualties everywhere—people falling from disease, divorce and tragedy. Looking around at all the suffering, we may think the battles in hospitals and divorce courts are being lost. But in reality, we’re losing the advanced and more important conflict—the battle in our minds.

Each day our minds are bombarded with a constant stream of nagging thoughts, suspicions, doubts and fears. While any one of these can cause defeat and devastation, we are often plagued by more than one…filling our daily lives with mental combat against an array of aggressors.

Since we fail to identify the battlefield, we also fail to correctly identify our foe. We tend to believe people, money, religion or “the system” are our problems. In an attempt to defend ourselves, we build strongholds in our mind. Strongholds are areas of thinking not based on truth but lies. Instead of protecting us, they actually imprison us. Unless we renew our mind, we risk continuing to believe those lies and making important decisions based on deception.

Let me give you an example of how strongholds of wrong thinking can destroy a marriage. Mary and her husband, John, are not enjoying a happy marriage. There is strife between them all the time. They are angry, bitter and resentful. Now their two children are starting to show signs of being affected by all the dissension at home. One of the kids is even developing stomach problems brought on by stress from the conflict.

Mary’s problem is that she doesn’t know how to let John be the head of their family. She is bossy—she wants to make all the decisions, handle the finances, and discipline the children. She wants to work so she will have her “own” money. She’s independent, loud and demanding. Mary knows her attitude is wrong and wants to change. She’s been in counseling and is constantly asking people to pray for God to help her. But she hasn’t seen any improvement. Why? Mary has trouble controlling her actions because she has trouble controlling her thoughts. She has a hard time knowing what thoughts to control because of the strongholds in her mind—strongholds that were built very early in her life.

-joyce meyer

battle field of the mind 2

As a child, Mary had an extremely domineering father. For years she suffered helplessly as her father mistreated her and her mother. He was disrespectful in all his ways except toward Mary’s brother who could do no wrong. It seemed as if he was favored just because he was a boy. By the time she was sixteen, the strongholds in Mary’s mind were firmly established. The stronghold of lies went like this: “Men really think they’re something. They are all alike, and you can’t trust any of them. They will hurt you and take advantage of you.” As a result, Mary’s mind was made up: “When I get away from home, nobody is ever going to push me around again!”

Before Mary can ever have victory in her life and peace in her marriage, she will have to tear down the strongholds that are ruling her thinking. Do you see yourself in Mary’s life? Many of us have given in to deception at one time or another. How can these strongholds be torn down? We must be willing to receive the light of Truth in our minds. Our search for Truth begins in God’s Word, which says that the Truth will set us free (see John 8:32). This means we can be free from bondage, sin and strongholds in our minds. But just searching for Truth won’t set us free. We must be courageous enough to also believe the Truth.

Even when the Truth illuminates what’s inside of us, it’s sometimes hard to accept. It’s a painful process to face our deceptions and deal with them. It’s so easy to allow our past and how we were raised to negatively affect us for the rest of our lives. Our past may explain why we’re suffering, but we must not use it as an excuse to stay in bondage. You may have some major strongholds in your life that need to be torn down. Let me encourage you by saying, “God is on your side.” There is a war going on, and your mind is the battlefield. But the good news is that God is fighting on your side!

-joyce meyer

two are better than one 1

The three-strand cord is a picture of the power that takes place when two people agree for something in line with God’s will for them. As two people become one in agreement with each other, there is a tremendous amount of power.

You can have such fun in your marriage when you begin to agree with each other. Do you know that God did not put you together to be miserable? He didn’t put you together to fight, pick on each other or try and change each other. The Bible says that a woman is to enjoy her husband. (See 1 Peter 3:2.) Think about that. I rarely hear a woman say, “You know what? I really enjoy my husband.” And God wants us to enjoy each other. He wants us to have fun together. You need to laugh and have fun together.

So how do two people with very different personalities—who don’t think alike, who don’t feel the same about a lot of different things, who don’t even like the same kind of food—become one? We know that it doesn’t just happen when you both say, “I do.” Becoming one is a process that just takes time.

-joyce meyer

two are better than one 2

Many times the longest part of the process of becoming one is in the mind. Couples are sometimes slow to agree in the way they think about things. How does this process of mental agreement take place? Most marital problems include strife from communication problems, sexual misunderstandings, money issues, different goals, and disagreements about parenting. All of these things get worked out between us within the soul’s realm of our union—our minds, wills and emotions. They don’t have as much to do with the spirit or the body as they do with what we think about those areas. We can know spiritually what the right thing to do is, but that doesn’t mean we will end up doing it.

The big question is: How do people who are not of one mind learn to agree? Agreement comes when the people involved stop being selfish. A lot of adults still deal with selfishness. All that selfishness amounts to is, “I want what I want when I want it, and I don’t really care what you want because I want what I want.” Selfishness is an immature inward focus. If each one of us will learn to voice our wants, but choose what best serves everybody in the family, then we will find peace. The key is to care about what the other person needs, be willing to humble ourselves, and do what we can to meet those needs

-joyce meyer