Book Review: I Declare War

• The three sources of my primary frustration in life are as follows: me, myself, and I. I am my biggest enemy, and I desperately want and need to get out of my own way. Location 351-352
• You can’t win a conflict you don’t admit you are in. Location 361-362
• In what ways do you need to get out of your own way? Don’t sanitize your list. The time for half measures is over. To be clean, you must come clean. Location 402-403
• Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (3:22–23 NIV) Location 444-448
• Hebrews 4:16 says, “So let us boldly approach God’s throne of grace. Then we will receive mercy. We will find grace to help us when we need it” (NIrV). You don’t have to wait for the start of day; you can seek the grace when you need it. Location 454-456
• Proverbs 25:28 tells us, “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.” Location 505-506
• Victor Hugo wrote, “You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea.” No one gets to live his or her dream without other people trying to turn it into a nightmare. Opposition is table stakes for living the life you were born to live. Of course, there is an easy way to make the critics go away: do nothing, contribute nothing, stand for nothing, be nothing. When you live out your calling, you will always face potshots from people who have given up on theirs. Location 751-755
•  “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13, emphasis added). Location 789-790
•  “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20, emphasis added). Location 793-794
• It is critical that you realize that your mind is the high ground of your life. In Paradise Lost, John Milton observed, “The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.” Location 871-872
• Not only do you have the permission to screen your thoughts, the Bible explicitly commands you to: “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things” (Philippians 4:8). Location 898-901
• My friend Kevin Gerald likes to say that “thoughts are like trains—they take you somewhere.” When a train of thought shows up, don’t just get on! Slow down before you board it to make sure it’s heading in the right direction. Location 942-943
•  “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2). Location 990-990
• Scripture puts your mind and heart into an airplane mode that makes it impervious to low-living, low-thinking communication that we are so often bombarded by. Location 993-994
• How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it. —G. K. CHESTERTON Location 1008-1009
• The biggest problem with defense mechanisms is this: when you put a mask on, you are masking yourself off from God’s blessing. Location 1160-1161
• When you are filled with wonder and not pretense, as you were as a child, you are as God intended you to be. Location 1169-1170
• The cure for insecurity is understanding your true identity. Location 1171-1171
• When you know who you are, it doesn’t matter what you are not. Location 1177-1178
• You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. —FORBES, 1972 Location 1208-1210
• Here’s the problem: an unguarded strength is a double weakness. If you flip over any virtue, you’ll find vice on the bottom. Location 1281-1282
• Bricks can be used to build hospitals or be thrown through windows. Water can quench a thirst or flood a city. Likewise, words are neutral in and of themselves; it’s how you use them that determines whether they are good or bad. Location 1302-1304
• Just as heredity controls what kind of tongue you have—whether you can roll it up or how long it is—heredity is also the reason our tongues are so destructive. We read in Romans 5:12 that it’s our sin nature that makes our words so dangerous: “Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Fortunately, whatever can be used for evil can be reclaimed and used for good. Location 1334-1337
• Faith is the password that unlocks God’s power. Jesus said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20). Location 1538-1540
• It’s crazy to think about how much of a difference your attitude can make. Did you know fans have the ability to change the outcome of a sporting event? They can sit there with their arms crossed or open their mouths and cheer. A researcher from Harvard University discovered that crowd noise has a verifiable impact on the game; for every 10,000 fans present, a home team gains an additional 0.1 goal advantage. One person cheering is not so loud, but a whole arena? That’s a whole different matter. Expectancy and excitement change everything. Location 1557-1561
• I don’t want to fight with those I work with. I want to work hard with them, not against them. I want our team to be creative, dynamic, and energized. I want our workplace to be challenging but inspiring, a laboratory where we can explore and brainstorm and do things that have never been done before. I want it to be a place where failure isn’t disciplined but expected and embraced, so long as it is born of initiative and innovation. I want us to be swept up in passion and excitement and laughter and feel drained but thrilled by the end of the day. So why do I channel my inner Steve Jobs and become a mercurial, stormy, demanding boss who is a petty dictator, a self-absorbed prig oblivious to the impact my mood, words, and body language have on those around me? I’d much rather my staff were confident in which boss they would get whenever they encountered me, rather than tiptoeing on eggshells until they find out which version of me they are meeting with. Location 1590-1597
• Proverbs 30:32 advises, “If you have been foolish in exalting yourself, or if you have devised evil, put your hand on your mouth.” Location 1620-1621
• A wise person once said, “If you speak when angry, you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret.” Location 1688-1689
• Henry Ford once reflected, “If there is any secret of success, it lies in the ability to get another person’s point of view and see things from his angle as well as your own.” Location 1770-1771
• The habits you allow in your life today are going to determine who you become tomorrow. Location 1944-1945
• C. S. Lewis elaborated on this idea in his classic Mere Christianity: Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. And apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge, a railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible. Location 2017-2022
• A lack of self-control now sets the stage for a future in which your emotions get the best of you. It won’t be easier to win the war within when you grow up on the outside if you never did on the inside. Location 2027-2029
• The right time to do the right thing is right now. Every second you stall is time that exponential growth could be working its slow magic. Location 2067-2068
• In the last moment before taking the stage, I always say the following: I am a son of the king. I have the spirit that raised Christ from the dead. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. I am as bold as a lion. Location 2314-2318
• Public victory comes from private discipline. If you aren’t busting your butt to kill it where you are, God isn’t going to turn up the volume on your life. He isn’t going to export to greater platforms what isn’t working at home. Location 2335-2336
• Philippians 2:10 says, “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth.” Location 2480-2481
• Mistakes aren’t a necessary evil. They aren’t evil at all. They are an inevitable consequence of doing something new (and, as such, should be seen as valuable). —ED CATMULL Location 2533-2535
•  “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6) Location 2651-2654
• Decide to obey God and then let him work out the details. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5–6). Location 2688-2690
•  “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. “But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.” (Matthew 7:24–27 THE MESSAGE) Location 2846-2852
• Ultimately the war we have been talking about throughout this book is the quest to eliminate idolatry. At the end of the day, all of our problems are worship problems. Our love of attention makes us value other people more than we value Jesus. Our love of stuff means we worship possessions more than Jesus. Our struggles with boldness cause us to worship comfort more than Jesus. And on and on it goes. The good news is that since worship gets you in this mess, worship can get you out. To win the battle, we must tear down the things that have been erected where only God belongs, in the preeminent place of honor, value, and glory. It is a daily battle to continue to put God on the throne and banish the would-be kings, but it’s also the only way to get out of your own way, to stop sabotaging yourself, and to lay hold of victory. Location 2897-2903
• Idols promise freedom but bring bondage. Location 2909-2910
• “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” (Isaiah 26:3) Location 3011-3014
•  “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” (Deuteronomy 30:19–20) Location 3014-3018
• I have written this whole book as an excuse to tell you this: when the devil messes with you, it’s a mistake on his part. Because every time he fights against something, he’s tipping his hand so you can see what matters to him. The only reason the enemy would come against you is because he sees value in you. Location 3040-3043

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through their book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”