Self-Help Says Trust Yourself. God Says Don't-Why Christian Men Need to Stop Leaning on Their Own Understanding

Most self-help advice tells us to trust ourselves, follow our hearts, believe in our instincts, and create our own truth.

The Bible teaches something very different.

In this Valiant Monday episode, Mark explores what Scripture says about the mind, our thoughts, and the danger of leaning too heavily on our own understanding.

Using Proverbs 3:5-6 as a foundation, we discuss:

• Why our thoughts aren't always trustworthy
• The danger of self-reliance
• What it means to take every thought captive
• How to renew your mind through Scripture
• Developing the mind of Christ
• Finding peace by trusting God instead of yourself

If you've ever struggled with anxiety, overthinking, fear, self-doubt, temptation, or simply trying to discern God's direction for your life, this conversation is for you.

Key Scriptures:
Proverbs 3:5-6
Isaiah 55:8-9
2 Corinthians 10:5
Romans 12:2
Philippians 4:8
1 Corinthians 2:16
Philippians 2:5
Isaiah 26:3
Philippians 4:6-7

The battle for your life often begins in your mind.

Don't trust your own understanding.

Take captive your thoughts.

Renew your mind.

Pursue the mind of Christ.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

How many of the things you've worried about actually happened? How many sleepless nights have you spent carrying burdens that never came to pass? How many times have you believed the worse only to find out later that you were wrong? It's amazing how powerful the mind can be. It can convince us we're defeated when we're not. Alone when we're not, hopeless when we're not. And if we're not careful, we'll simply start believing our thoughts because they are our thoughts. I'm Mark Osborne, and this is the Valiant Forge, where Christian men come to forge strength and purpose in Christ. Today I want to talk about the battle in the mind. And if we're going to talk about the battle for the mind, we need to face an uncomfortable truth. We have those battles because we lean too much on our own understanding. We lean on what we know instead of what the truth says in the Word of God. Proverbs 3, 5 through 6 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. We live in a culture that tells us to trust ourselves, to believe in ourselves. You got this. You know your own truth. You are your truth. Be you. Do what you feel. That is all our own understanding. Scripture says something completely different. God never tells us to trust on our own understanding because our understanding is limited. Our understanding tells us we got this. We can figure it out. We can do it on our own. We don't need help. We don't need anybody. We got this. Those are dangerous words. I got this. That's not something that I've come up with. I've heard Joby Martin say this: that the three most dangerous words that a man can say is, I've got this. And man, that that resonated with me so strong because I have said that so many times in my life. It's okay. I got this. I can figure it out. How many times have you said that? You know what you're doing there is you're leaning on your own understanding. Our understanding is limited because we don't see the whole picture. God has a plan. He sees everything. He's omnipotent. He sees our future. He sees our past. He sees everything up to this point. So if we learn to trust in him and not lean on our own understanding, we learn to follow our plan and we get a little less tripped up along the way. When we don't see the whole picture, we make decisions based on our emotions, based on our feelings, based on our own understanding, based on what we know, based on what makes sense to us. When we start basing our decisions on God's plan, on God's ways, then we can get a little further down the path a little quicker. In Isaiah 55, 8 through 9, it says, My thoughts are not your thoughts. Your ways are higher than my ways. Again, we don't see the whole picture. God sees everything. And when we start leaning so much on our own thoughts and what we have learned through culture, through our own life experiences, and base our decisions off of that, that causes us to lean on our own understanding and make wrong decisions. God's perspective is higher. And there are times in our life when we have to be obedient when it doesn't make any sense. We don't need more information. What we need is to trust God more. God told me to, I felt like I've been saying this for a while that God told me to start a podcast. I didn't hear this audible voice saying start a podcast. I got a thought in my head, and I tried to push that thought away because my own understanding said you can't do this. You were not confident talking to people face to face, let alone talking to people on a camera in front of a microphone, not knowing who is going to see this. But that's me leaning on my own understanding. But God's ways are higher than my ways. God knows maybe somebody out there is going to hear this unconfident guy who doesn't believe in himself because I don't believe in myself. I'm only the only reason that I'm talking to you on a camera, on a YouTube channel, or a podcast, is because I am trusting in God that the message that I'm sharing right now, because God placed this message in my spirit and I felt like God told me to speak it, I don't have enough understanding. I don't have a seminary degree, I don't have a doctorate. I've studied the Bible pretty a lot for the past five years, but I've been a Christian for over 40 years. I've heard Bible passages most of my life, but I have not studied them. I'm not this great scholar. But that's my own understanding that says I'm not a scholar. God, why are you going to use me? I don't have the knowledge. I don't have the, I don't have the, I don't know the theology. I'm not an apologetic, whatever they call themselves. I'm just the guy reading scriptures and sharing what I feel like God's telling me to do. But that God's ways, maybe there's somebody out there listening to me right now, saying, hey man, this guy, he's being real and authentic, because that's what I'm doing. I am not the guy to you should be listening to. But the words are coming out of my mouth, they're what the Holy Spirit is telling me to say. And if you're out there listening right now and you're like, man, I need a message like this. I need to learn to not lean on my understanding because I feel like God's leading me in a certain direction that doesn't make sense to me. Sometimes you just have to be obedient and trust in God and stop leaning on your own understanding. This whole talk today I'm doing is about the mind. So when we lean on our own our own understanding, sometimes our understanding can be wrong. We need to pay attention to what we're allowing into our minds, because what we're allowing into our minds creates our understanding. This is all about the mind. In 2 Corinthians 10, 5, it says, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Paul doesn't say every thought is true. Paul doesn't say every thought that you have is from God. You have to discern and understand. In order to do that, you have to take captive of the thoughts. What does it mean to take captive? This thought popped in my head. Maybe it was just me. I want to think about it a little bit, see if it makes sense, see if it lines up with the Bible. This is how we feed our spirits and get a different understanding than what we've been told our whole lives on how to be and how to act, how to deal with our emotions or how to step up and whatever the world's telling us. That changes by what we're inputting into it, and what we input into our minds is right here. The word of God. And through prayer, through prayer, when you pray and ask God to help you, to give you understanding, you think God, just to put some things into perspective. The world tells you this, and it's it's absolutely biblical, and it's true. When you feel like you don't have anything, practice gratitude. Be grateful for the things you have, and that's absolutely true. The Bible talks about it all the time. Count your many blessings. That is a thought that might be your own understanding, but why do we have to have so many self-development people telling us this? Because it's not an easy thing to do, because it doesn't make sense to us. Because our brain wants to think about the negative things. That's why they tell you to practice gratitude, to think about the things that you can be grateful for, that you should be grateful for. Just a side note that uh maybe another podcast someday. James says, Count it all joy when you encounter various trials. It is absolutely great to think about the great things and the blessings that God has given you. But sometimes you need to be grateful for the battles. You need to be grateful for the times that you've leaned on your own understanding and messed up. Because now God is pulling you through it and God is teaching you a better way. That's real gratefulness when you're thankful for the battles that you're fighting. So, how do you know you're not leaning on your own understanding and you're you're following God's ways? You have to ask yourself, does this agree with scripture? Is this something that God would want me to do? If you're thinking, I'm not good enough for this, I can't do this, I've messed up too much. That's your own understanding. Because I can tell you, as a man who's talking on a podcast to Christian men right now, I'm not good enough for this. I've messed up, I've made so many mistakes in my life, 59 years of living. I should have figured this out when I was at least in my 40s, but I didn't. Am I figuring it out now? Maybe a little bit because I'm learning to not lean on my own understanding, but I'm still gonna mess up. I'm still messing up, but I'm getting better because I'm learning to trust in God and not lean on my own understanding. So, what we need to do to renew our minds, you know, I've talked about this, I did a whole series on this a few weeks ago. It's the theme of the podcast: renew your mind by the transforming, be you renewed by the transforming of your mind, which is in Christ Jesus, so that you can learn to be obedient to God's ways. I paraphrase that a little bit, but that's basically is like so you don't lean on your own understanding and you lean on God's ways. And in order to be renewed by the transforming of your mind, you have to take captive of your thoughts, you have to learn to think on different things than you think on most of the time. How do you take captive of a thought? Let's do a simple example for a man. Most of us deal with this. I still deal with this from time to time. Lust. Take a simple example. A beautiful woman walks past you, and your first thought is, Oh, she looks good. What it'd be like to stop right there and ask yourself, is this a good thought? How do I take captive of this thought? I'm going to show you right now. I got the Bible in front of me. Philippians 4, 8. Says, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, and if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. So when you have that bad thought, ask yourself, is this noble? Is this pure? Is this just ask yourself, am I thinking on these things? When you have that bad thought? And I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you right now, the enemy is going to try to keep you from even remembering this scripture. But all you gotta do is just say the name of Jesus. Yeshua. You have that bad thought comes up, and you just think, Jesus, help me. I guarantee you, you cannot have a bad thought and think about Jesus at the same time. And as our mind gets renewed, we start to think differently. Not because we're smarter, but we are becoming more like Christ. In 1 Corinthians 2.16, it says, we have the mind of Christ. Philippians 2.5 says, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. If you have the mind of Christ, what happens when you think about failure? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. What happens when you think about weakness? My strength is in the Lord. Ask yourself, what would Jesus think about surrender? What did Jesus do? Jesus surrendered his whole life for us. You want to have the mind of Christ? Learn to surrender. Learn what real surrender looks like. You want to shape the way that you think? Think how Jesus would think. Go back to the bracelets that we had back in the, I don't know, it was the 90s or early 80s or whatever it was. What would Jesus do? Change it to what would Jesus think. You want to have the mind of Christ? You want to be renewed, you want to take captive every thought, you want to lean not on your own understanding. Think like Jesus thought. Now I'm talking about a lot of things, and it sounds like I'm I'm asking you to fight, and I am asking you to fight. Fight for your thoughts, fight for your mind, but have peace in this battle. Isaiah 26 3 says, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. Philippians 4, 6 through 7 says, The peace of God you shall keep in your hearts and your minds. We talk about a peace that makes no sense. It doesn't make sense to us because we have our own understanding. But when we learn to develop the mind of Christ, that peace starts to make a little bit more sense. When you're in this place, like I don't understand why I'm not worried about this situation that I have in my life. Because it's a peace that makes no sense because you have the mind of Christ. You're learning, when you start having those thoughts, it's okay because it's all under God's control. I don't got this. I got this through Jesus Christ. I don't got this on my own. He's helping me through it. He's helping me fight the battles. He's helping me to move the mountains. And you start thinking like that, then you are developing the mind of Christ. And you will have that peace that passes all understanding. So the battle for life often begins in the mind. Don't trust your own understanding, take captive your thoughts. Renew your mind, pursue the mind of Christ. Because the thoughts you repeatedly believe will become the thoughts that you represent. You want to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ? You learn to take on the mind of Christ. Stay in the Word, stay in prayer, stay connected to Jesus. Let the Holy Spirit lead you and direct you and guide you. Let me know what you think of all that I said in the comments. Do you battle in your mind? Where is your struggle? Maybe we can work this out together. Maybe I can find something in Scripture that can help you through whatever you're going through. I drop interview podcast on Thursdays and encouragement podcasts like this on Mondays. If you've just found the channel and you're looking for encouragement like this for help and strength, you want to learn to take captive every thought and get on get into the mind of Christ, follow the podcast. Thank you for watching. Stay strong, stay valiant, keep forging your path, and be blessed.