Do you ever let your thoughts get away from you?
Do your thoughts get out of control?
Do you feel like you need to increase your meds on some days?
Like when a loved one doesn't call you back in a timely manner?
We have it all played out in our head, right?
Of course it is always the worst scenario. Like the worst!
What about when you have some ailment?
We have already googled it and are now updating our farewell notes to our family and friends.
Do you see how our thoughts can take us down the crazy trail?
A couple of friends and I were talking at lunch the other day about our thoughts and one said, what does it mean to take our thoughts captive?
Good question. What does Paul mean in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.”
We have to employ the Holy Spirit to train our thoughts to obey Christ.
Because verse 3-4 comes before 5 let’s look at those also, “We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.” Paul is using a war analogy.
We can teach our thoughts to obey Christ by training them with God’s mighty weapons. Those are the belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, and sword of the Holy Spirit (Eph 6:10-18). We can also learn to dwell on things that are true and good and right, the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse (Phil 4:8).
A couple of things that we know, Paul is not talking about a physical battle, he is talking about a spiritual battle that is also mental and emotional in nature. He also reminds us of the strongholds and false arguments in human reasoning.
Have you heard the saying, “As someone thinks within himself, so he is.” That is from God’s word, Proverbs 23:7.
Our thinking apart and outside of God is faulty.
So what does captive mean? Think about a person being taken captive? They are held in isolation to determine guilt or innocence then once decided they are free or judged. Paul is saying, which I like better, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and destroy false arguments. Meaning be gone, burn them up, write them in a journal and burn the journal. Give them to God and don’t take them back. EVER! Not even once or a little.
Have you ever seen a little kid walk up to an escalator for the first time? They have their hand on the moving rail that pulls them forward and they are filled with fear because they think the escalator is going to eat them up so they get on. They don’t realize they have the option to let go and stay on the non moving surface.
Is that what we do when our human reasoning or warped philosophies on being and finding value as a female in this world are coming at us. We keep our hand on the escalator rail and just go along for the ride till we realize that was not smart? Or do we let go of the rail and realize that we need to tear down barriers erected against the truth of God.
Are we going to be women who hold captive those thoughts of the world that have been implanted in us since the fall/birth?
Are we going to be women who now fit every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.
That is called captive!
That is how I want to live!
I am going to go buy more journals now.
See you are Mardel's.