August 22
Job 25-27
Psalm 95:1-5
Proverbs 21:1-2
2 Corinthians 10
Taking Every Thought Captive
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.”
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 NIV
A few days ago, we looked at the power of the tongue and the destructive influence it can have over our lives. Today we will examine another part of our body that gets us in a lot of trouble. Like our tongue, our minds are difficult to tame. This verse admonishes us to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. So, what does that mean? How do we do that? I must admit that I struggle with this. I am a planner. I like to be prepared so I tend to go over things in my head thinking of all the problems that can occur and how I will respond if they do. This most often leads to worry and anxiety about things that usually never happen. This is not taking every thought captive. I call this tendency chasing rabbits. I chase them around and around and down dark holes until I work myself into a frenzy needlessly. Instead of trusting that God will take care of me and that He will prepare me for anything that does happen, I let my mind wander down dark paths of fear and anxiety. The things that we fill our mind with will have an impact on our thought patterns and will determine how well we are able to make our minds obedient to Christ. Filling our minds with evil and sinful things will inevitably lead to evil and sinful things coming out. If we allow foul language in, foul language will eventually come out. If we allow grumbling and complaining in, grumbling, and complaining will come out. If we fill our minds with negative thoughts and ideas, we will be discontented and unhappy.
If filling our minds with negative things leads to negative thinking, then filling our minds with positive, encouraging things will help us control our minds. Spending time reading and studying God’s Word, reading Christian books, spending time with godly friends who encourage and uplift us in our faith, fellowshipping with believers, and listening to podcasts and sermons that point us to God are all excellent ways to fill your minds. If we are filling our minds with God’s Word then whenever we encounter arguments and pretensions that are contrary to the knowledge of God, we recognize them immediately and can demolish them completely. When a negative or wrong thought comes into our minds, we can dismiss it right away as being false and it does not have control over us. The best time to demolish an argument is right when it begins to form so that it does not have time to take root. This is difficult to do, and we need the help of the Holy Spirit to recognize when we are allowing our minds to stray down paths that are not pleasing to God. It is often subtle at first and we don’t even realize it until we are way down the rabbit hole. I would encourage you to pray today and ask God to reveal areas in your thought life where you need to take your thoughts captive to make them obedient to Christ.
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