Today we continue our series entitled “Living the Grace Life,” where we will learn to embrace and walk in God’s unmerited, unearned, and often undeserved favor throughout 2025.
Key scriptures for this year:
2 Corinthians? ?9?:?8? ?TPT??
“Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything—every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do.”
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??Galatians? ?5?:?4? ?TPT??
“If you want to be made right with God by fulfilling the obligations of the law, you have cut off more than your flesh—you have cut yourselves off from Christ and have fallen away from the revelation of grace!”
Romans? ?6?:?14? ?ERV??
“Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God’s grace.”
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1 Corinthians? ?15?:?10? ?NIV??
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
Additional scriptures for today:
Let’s look at Galatians 5:17 from several translations:
Galatians 5:17 TPT
“For your self-life craves the things that offend the Holy Spirit and hinder him from living free within you! And the Holy Spirit’s intense cravings hinder your old self-life from dominating you! So then, the two incompatible and conflicting forces within you are your self-life of the flesh and the new creation life of the Spirit.”
Galatians 5:17 ERV
“The sinful self wants what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is against the sinful self. They are always fighting against each other, so that you don’t do what you really want to do.”
Setting the Stage:
Many believers struggle with an internal conflict after becoming Born-Again. They experience what seems like a civil war within – their new nature in Christ desires one thing while their old thought patterns pull them in another direction. This isn’t a sign that something is wrong; it’s actually evidence that you’re alive in Christ! Before salvation, there was no conflict because there was only one nature at work. But now, as a new creation in Christ, you face an internal battle between your new nature and your old thought patterns.
God’s grace doesn’t just save us; it provides everything we need to win this internal war. However, many believers try to fight this battle through willpower or self-effort, leading to frustration and defeat. The key to victory isn’t trying harder – it’s learning to understand the battle, develop new thought patterns, maintain momentum, and establish grace-based habits. This transformation isn’t instant, but through God’s grace, we can experience consistent victory in the war within.
So, what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. Understanding the Battle Within.
Romans 7:22-23 NIV
“For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind.”
Once you’re Born-Again, you face an internal conflict between your new nature in Christ and your old thought patterns. Understanding this battle is crucial to winning it.
How this applies to you:
— Once you are Born-Again, you are a new man, living in an old body, in need of a new mind.
— Your new nature in Christ desires to please God. However, your old thought patterns resist this new nature.
— The battle is primarily in your mind (your soul).
— To walk in the victory God has provided for you already, it requires understanding both sides of the conflict. You must recognize the conflict and then embrace grace to choose what is right in God’s sight.
— God’s grace gives you the power to choose things that please God.
— Every choice you make for God over your old thought patterns, strengthens your new nature.
— This battle is not just for peace in your personal life, it manifests in your professional life as well. Once you are filled with God’s Spirit, He will begin to lead you during business meetings. You will receive new thoughts and new insight, and you will have (by nature) a new way of leading and doing things. However, your old thought patterns and habits (that you developed over time) will attempt to pull you back into your old way of doing things. To win this conflict between old and new ways of thinking, you must rely on and rest in the grace of God.
— One thing you can do when you are learning to discern God’s voice over your old way of thinking is to create strategic pauses in your day to reset your mind, especially when facing intense business pressures. Once you have God’s Spirit IN you, you don’t want to face the pressures of this world in the flesh. If you face things in the flesh, you will fail to tap into the supernatural power the Holy Spirit has made available to you. This is why you can be a Christian, filled with God’s Spirit, and still be stressed out every day. It’s not that you don’t have God’s Spirit, or that you don’t have access to His wisdom or peace. It’s just that you are choosing to live your life the way you did before you were Born-Again. Don’t make this mistake. Don’t live beneath God’s best.
2. Developing New Thought Patterns.
2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Victory in the internal war requires developing new ways of thinking. Your old patterns were developed over years; new ones take time to establish.
How this applies to you:
— Going back to our main scripture for today, Paul said,
“For your self-life craves the things that offend the Holy Spirit and hinder him from living free within you! And the Holy Spirit’s intense cravings hinder your old self-life from dominating you! So then, the two incompatible and conflicting forces within you are your self-life of the flesh and the new creation life of the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:17 TPT)
— Paul tells us that the thoughts we receive from the Holy Spirit and the thoughts from our old self-life are incompatible and conflicting.
— To live a successful Christian life (which basically means to fulfill God’s purpose for your life), you must identify thought patterns that oppose God’s Word and reject them.
— All day long, you get thoughts from God, the enemy, and yourself. You must filter those thoughts through the Word of God. You have the power to receive and reject thoughts. You must reject anything that does not line up with Biblical truth.
— The best way to develop a “new mind” is to replace negative patterns with Godly ones.
— You can build new neural pathways through repetition. Which is why the Bible teaches us to meditate and medicate on God’s Word.
— Practice taking thoughts captive daily.
— Learn to recognize triggers that activate old patterns.
— Victory comes through consistent practice. You must learn to be cognizant of the way you think.
— The good news is that God has given you the grace for it!
— One of the reasons why I wrote the affirmations books (for men and women) is so that we would know what to think and say about different situations. When face a challenge, it is important to think and say what God believes about it!
3. Maintaining Momentum in the Battle.
Philippians 3:13-14 NIV
“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize.”
The internal war is ongoing, but each victory builds momentum. Success comes through consistent forward progress, not perfection.
How this applies to you:
— Focus on progress, not perfection.
— God does not expect you to be perfect, but He does expect you to die daily. This means that every day, you should be getting incrementally closer to God’s overall expected end for your life.
— When you develop the ability to think the way God thinks, you can learn from setbacks without being defeated by them.
— You will experience setbacks and victories, but you should never allow a setback to become permanent. The only way you can lose is if you quit. If you don’t quit, that setback will eventually turn into a victory.
— Each victory (no matter how long it took to realize) will strengthen you for the next battle.
— You can build up Godly momentum by making consistent decisions that please God.
— Your strength grows with each challenge overcome. Over time, small victories lead to major breakthroughs.
— Once you think you must as a believer, as you are attempting to die to self and grow in Christ, is to celebrate the progress you are making. These celebrations will help you to maintain your momentum.
— When you make a decision that is pleasing in God’s sight, and you think to yourself, “Wow, 5 years ago or 10 years ago, I would have handled that differently,” pause for a moment to thank God. The more you celebrate the newness of life you are experiencing in your thoughts and actions, the more apt you will be to continue down that path!
— Schedule time every week to pray over your business or department, and when you do, consider whether or not your business decisions align with your renewed mindset. You want to identify areas that still need to be renewed.
4. Establishing Grace-Based Victory Habits.
2 Peter 3:18 NIV
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Long-term victory comes through establishing new habits based on God’s grace, not through willpower or self-effort.
How this applies to you:
— You may not realize it, but a good portion of your life runs on autopilot. There are things you do, without thinking about them, because they have become a habit. Therefore, to become the man/woman God called you to be, you must build habits and routines that reinforce your new nature.
— Make it a habit to read your Bible every day. Make it a habit to pray in the morning and throughout the day. Make it a habit to seek God’s direction every time you need to make a decision. Create habits that strengthen your spirit, feed your faith, and starve your doubts.
— Most of us are creatures of habit. So, make sure you establish patterns that support the victory God has already provided.
— Most of what I am talking about at this point is tied to the grace of God. I am not making this about human effort. This is about resting in God’s grace.
— To grow in grace, we must grow in the knowledge of God. The more we know the Word of God, the more we will know the God of the Word, because the Bible contains the character, attributes, and nature of God.
— If you want to make decisions that align with God and His grace, you must fill your heart with the Word of God. If you do, if God’s Word becomes the dominant influence in your heart, you will be more apt to be led by God’s Spirit, you will make decisions that align with His best, and before you know it, victories will build upon victories, because you will be dying to self (your old nature) and allowing God to live through you.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for giving me an understanding of the battle within me.
I declare that Your grace empowers me to develop new thought patterns that align with Your Word.
Through Your grace, I maintain momentum in this battle, focusing on progress rather than perfection.
I am establishing new habits based on Your grace, not my own efforts.
Your power enables me to recognize and overcome old thought patterns that oppose Your will.
I build upon each victory, growing stronger in Your grace daily.
My business decisions and leadership reflect the triumph of my new nature in Christ.
I structure my day around grace-based success habits that honor You.
You are transforming my mind and empowering me to win the war within.
Living this way, I experience THE GRACE LIFE in 2025 and beyond and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!
I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and prosper!
