Tuesday, August 12, 2008

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Taking our Thoughts Captive

"and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5).

We should all know that we are in a battle.  We have an enemy.  And his sole purpose is to steal from you, kill you, or destroy you (John 10:10).  We have seen that this battle has consequences in our lives but by and large takes place in our minds and that we have to have our minds renewed by the Holy Spirit if we are ever going to win (See the August 4th challenge).  We often have a problem in our thinking, and the problem is as one black preacher put it so well, we have "stinkin' thinkin'."

Everything that we do or say starts as a thought.  We may not have thought through what we do or say for very long — maybe only at times for a split second — but there is really nothing that is not premeditated.  We have given thought to our actions.  We have given thought to our words.  When we don't think properly or completely, they usually get us into trouble.  That is being careless or rash.  And when we think about them too long, often the time has passed to act or speak or, we end up doing nothing.  Someone has called this later problem, "analysis paralysis."  Either way, our thoughts have gotten us into trouble.

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  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" (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

We are in a battle over our thoughts.  Satan wants you to have stinkin' thinkin'.  For then, we end up defeating ourselves.  He wants us to fight this battle with the world's weapons — positive thinking, just change your mind, reinvent yourself, etc. — because he know that these have no power to defeat him.  We have, however, been given weapons which are effective because they have God's power.  He has already defeated our opponent.  We'll get to that shortly.

There are at least three things that Satan wants us to do unknowingly.  The first is to establish thought strongholds.  When we have always thought a certain way about a particular thing, it is a stronghold.  It is pretty difficult to change the mind of someone who is "set in their ways."  That is a stronghold.  And Satan will work to get us thinking incorrectly and if he can get us to think that wrong way long enough, we will actually come to believe it as true and through deception, a stronghold has been established in our minds.  He also wants us to be argumentative.  And he will come to us with a version of what he spoke to Eve in the garden and say, "Did God really say such and such, and what does that mean?  Does God really have your best interest in mind?"  He wants us to question and argue with the truth for then maybe we will choose something less.  The third trap of the mind that he would lead us into is pretension.  This is to think that we know our own minds or that we are in control or that we are "okay."  Pretense is a claim that is made or asserted to be true that is in reality not so.

What is the acid test for all of these things?  How do they relate to our knowledge of God?  How do they measure up to his standards?  How are they affecting our relationship with him?  And, the reality is that strongholds — when we have made up our minds about something — and arguments — things we have convinced ourselves are true — and pretense — that which would put us in a strong position — all of these are pretty much guaranteed to be against the knowledge of God.  Stinkin' Thinkin'.  And the only cure is to "take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ."

We do this by not speaking or acting on a thought before submitting it to God.  Lord, what do you think?  What would you say or do in this situation, Jesus?  These are what our weapons are for and they have God's power.  Truth.  Righteousness — our relationship with God.  Peace.  Faith.  Salvation.  The Spirit. The Word of God.  Prayer (See Ephesians 6:10-18).  Paul says,

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes" (Ephesians 6:10-11).

God has given us everything that we need to fight and win.  Most often we just have to prayerfully focus more on the truth found in his Word.  We need more of his Spirit inside so that it can come out.  If "garbage in, garbage out" is true, then "truth in, truth out" is even more true.

Take your thoughts captive today.  Think about what you're thinking about.  Be more thoughtful.  And, using all of the powerful weapons that God has given you, make your every thought obey Christ.  That is a life without regrets!

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