Washington Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president

Have you ever played mind games?

There are all sorts of them. There are harmless mind games where you have to figure things out. There are rooms where you can be locked in and have to use your brain to figure out all sorts of clues to escape the room in a designated amount of time.

There are also mind games that are not healthy that are used against people. Gaslighting and ghosting are a couple of popular terms that are used today that, frankly, are nothing more than mind games.

There are mind games we play on ourselves that can also be destructive.

During the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale worked tirelessly to improve the lot of injured soldiers while working to improve the nursing profession; a profession that was looked down upon by many, including her parents.

Her parents did not want her to become a nurse, yet it was during the war that she became famous. After the war, she worked hard to establish a school of nurses and improve the nursing profession. Many achievements are listed as hers, and she continues to be quite famous for all the work she did.

What many don’t know or remember was that she also played mind games with herself, and it affected her quality of life.

You see, after the Crimean War, she returned home and took to a sick bed convinced she was near death. She felt that she was going to die soon. She did die . . . but at the age of 90. The mind game she played was believing she was sick and about to die even though doctors could find nothing wrong with her. She was a hypochondriac from her late thirties until her death.

It was a mind game that affected her for the rest of her life.

The most dangerous mind game is what plays out each day in the great controversy of your mind. There are ways that temptation and evil work their way into our lives. The devil as a roaring lion is always looking to play mind games with you and hamper your life.

That is why the text of the week—and what should be a daily and moment-by-moment practice—is found in Isaiah 26:3

This week as you seek to grow spiritually practice this text and keep your mind focused on Jesus.