It has been a week of intense battle, mostly in my mind, which is where we fight the majority of our battles. If only we can learn to control our mind.
As it says in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 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.
If only I could remember this when the thoughts of loneliness, anger, lust, despair, etc... crowd my mind.
Our lives are directed by our thoughts. Therefore, it stands to reason that, if our thought-life is clean, pure, and honest, then our actions and ultimately our results will be clean, pure, and honest.
(Phil 4:8) Another way to put it is “where our thought life goes there we will be also.”
This takes training. We are so used to letting our minds wander, very seldom realizing that we need to control them. In 2 Cor. 10:5 (printed above)
Paul admonishes us to take captive every thought. Paul didn’t say, ”don’t think,” and he didn’t say, “to take captive some of your thoughts,” he said to take them captive--all of them. In other words, if a thought pops up in our head we must be conditioned enough to realize we had the thought and analyze the thought immediately. Is this thought beneficial to God’s purpose or my own? Is it destructive or selfish, does it encourage and build up, or does it degrade and/or tear down?
We must decide what thought we have, take it captive if it’s not of good intentions, or free the good thought of encouragement to build up God’s Kingdom. Remember acting upon that thought causes results that we will have to deal with later--whether good or bad. We need to examine whether it is beneficial or non-beneficial to the kingdom.
Paul did not say, “do not think,” he said to take our thoughts captive. If we were to put a bird in a cage it would be in captivity and would be there until we free it. If we were to leave the bird in the cage without ever feeding it, the bird would soon die. It is the same with our thoughts. If we feed a thought it will keep growing, sometimes out of control. If the thought gets out of control that little thought can become destructive, not only to you but also to your family, friends, acquaintances, job and so on. The thoughts may continue long enough that they become uncontrolled, creating bitterness, resentment, selfishness, anger, etc. These out of control thoughts can result in unforgiveness and, ultimately, in sin.
A perfect example of this is to see someone of the opposite gender, in my case a man. He is very handsome and eye-catching. My thought life has just been engaged and there is nothing wrong with that so far. He is handsome and attractive, a creation of God, move on. If I choose not to move on, that “thought” becomes a problem. If I harbour that thought and feed that thought toward the man my thoughts can only turn from noble to self-gratifying thoughts, moving into sin. Depending on where you are in your walk with the Lord, depends on the standard for how far you will take your thoughts. If your thought goes beyond, “he is a beautiful creation of God,” the thought is probably starting to wander off the noble path. I’m not only talking sexual thoughts, but thoughts like, “I wonder how many much he works out?” or “I wonder what it would feel like to be held in those strong arms.”
If you are single, (or not) you may think “is he married, or spoken for?” “Would he possibly care to get to know me?” “What kind of woman is he attracted to?” Your thought life could actually take that man or woman and put them into your life to the point that you are married with four perfect children, two girls and two boys, a perfect dog, and a perfect job. All of this without you ever saying hello. If you are married, that thought should not even enter your mind! Women are not immune from this type of thought life at all. How many women watch soaps, read romance novels, or talk to a girlfriend about their husband? Your mind has been engaged and off you go. STOP! There is nothing of God in any of those thoughts.
I can easily speak on the example given, because I am once again a single woman, after losing my husband to cancer 3 yrs ago. As a single woman I have at times,d let my thoughts drift, feeding them and letting them go much further than they should. Who would they hurt? They’re just fun thoughts. I thought they were fun thoughts, but God did not see anything but destruction in my life. This is not the purpose God had intended for me. I never had the nerve to walk up to the good looking man and introduce myself to him, but I certainly did in my mind, and then it was off to the races.
I used myself and the total lack of control to suit my selfish desires, with total disregard for anyone else. By my choice to travel down a sinful path, I gave birth to other sin in my life. Simply, because of my failure to capture my thoughts and starve them to death.
If we feed our thoughts about another man (or woman) eventually we will end up at the door step of adultery, making this man or woman something he/she probably is not, and putting our self in a sinful thought pattern, having to repent and ask for forgiveness. Just think, it should not even have gotten that far, if only we had self control. Proverbs 25:28--Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.
If we allow the lack of control to persist in our lives, the more desensitized we become making it easier to justify our thoughts giving birth to more thoughts of the same nature, going further and further each time. Possibly one day taking action on that thought, causing results that will create more sin in our lives. Possibly now having to deal with hurt, pain and destruction in your own life, as well as others, leading into a cycle of bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness all over again.
But now it has spread to others, causing pain and destruction in their lives--and the destruction spreads from there. Just think all of this destruction because of one out of control thought. It has now gone full circle, but now we have pulled someone else into that sinful life we have chosen to live. Simply because of the choice we have made--not to take captive our thoughts, choosing to feed the thoughts we have, letting them grow, and possibly releasing them to do their destruction in someone else's life. Our thoughts may never get this far at first, but keep feeding them, they will.
Everyone who is reading this has their own experiences of how they struggle with their thoughts, maybe not to the degree that I illustrated, but sin is sin and an uncontrolled thought life will lead to sin, even into greater amounts of sin.
I have used these examples simply because they are easy to relate to, but how about thoughts on lust, covetousness, jealousy, envy, anger, deceit, gossip, pride, and so on. Are any of these profitable for our walk? Do any of these build up, or just tear down?
This is what it means when Paul talks about the whole measure, Eph 4:12-13--to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
God’s timing and your measure of faith set the guidelines to what God can, and will do with you at that time. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (Jas 4:8) Gaining the personal relationship that God so desires will take you to places your mind and thoughts could never take you on your own, but now it is actions not just thoughts.
We need to serve Christ rather than our selfish desires. We have the mind of Christ, it is up to us to receive the mind and use it for the benefit of His kingdom. "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Co 2:16)
The only way we will know His thoughts is through His word, and a personal relationship with Him, and realizing that it is not our understanding but His we are to lean on. In other words, not depending on anyone or anything except the Holy Spirit.
I have heard too many times the phrase “the devil made me do it.“ Stop giving the devil so much credit. The devil may have tempted you but you chose to act. A good rule of thumb is, “The devil can only take what you give him.” So we need to set our thoughts on things above. “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Col 3:2) And fix your thoughts on Jesus. Heb 3:1--Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.
Paul in Phil 4:8 gives a guideline of what we are to do with our thoughts, and how we are to apply them to our lives, causing results--positive results--that the Lord can and will use. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.”
I must take captive every though,t and then I will be free to serve God with all my heart and all my mind.
portions of this were borrowed from a sermon by a Galilean preacher . : -)
