"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 pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." II Corinthians 10:4-5
Pieces of these verses are being quoted often lately for several reasons.
1) Our thoughts get out of control, leading our mouths to the same.
2) Stinkin thinkin leads to poor choices and sinful behavior.
3) We seem to be addicted to learning the hard way.
All of these tendencies make such a powerful verse very applicable. We should all admit, that all of our problems begin between our ears. Such being the case, it is our thoughts that must be surrendered to Christ, constantly. I am doing it right now before I start using illustrations that easily come to mind. So, instead of giving you a bunch of 'for example' type of statements, I am deciding to take those thoughts captive and instead illuminate the text a little.
Here goes... The weapons of the world are human, limited and fallible. God's divine weapons destroy the devil's lies and deceptions. We have access to those weapons when we surrender to Him and resist the enemy. We can, by the power of God and obedience to Him, take our thoughts captive and then surrender them to Him to be replaced with His right and true thinking. It is pretentious to trust our own thinking so easily without subjecting it to the standard of His Word. What we think must line up with His truth or we must let it go. Our weapons include the Word of God (The Bible), the invoking of His Name (Jesus) and the power of His Blood (Authority of the Cross). In spiritual battles these weapons are effective. If you cannot easily control your thoughts or your mouth, your choices or your behaviors, or your repeated conflicts, then you must use what God has given to you and resist until you succeed. If that doesn't work, ask a strong, grounded believer to help you.
We are in a battle, we have superior weapons; don't give in to your thinking so much. Take your thoughts captive and surrender them to the Lord now. The victory is won, claim it. Walk in victory, be an overcomer. The truth can indeed, set you free. Remember, it all begins between your ears. Hope this helps someone today.
Thoughtfully,
Pastor Fred
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Your mission has been accomplished because it has helped someone today - it helped me. Thought control, or rather, thought captivity and subsequent surrender to Jesus, is a process I go through continually, especially at night as I prepare for sleep. For some reason this seems to be the most difficult time of day for me when it comes to successfully laying thoughts at the feet of Jesus and then walking away (Or, more accurately, drifting away). It's as if I lay a wrong (or, not always necessarily a “wrong” thought, but just an overwhelming thought) thought at His feet, thank Him, walk away, and then in less than five seconds I run to retrieve the very thought I sought to surrender. As if to say "I changed my mind, give it back," I hang on to the thought a little longer. Shortly after this first circle, I start the process over and return, wrong thoughts in hand, to His feet and lay them down. Again, only seconds after I've turned to drift away, I reverse my direction and nearly trip over my own increasingly groggy feet in a mad dash back to wrestle the thought from His presence. Unfortunately, He never puts up a fight. He politely gives it right back to me as I almost trample Him to mentally grasp it. After a few more lingering moments where I toss whatever "wrong thought" it was around in my head, I turn towards Him again to let it go. I honestly don't have a clue how many times I do this before I finally fall asleep. "God, I'm trying to lay this at your feet, but You're not taking it. Would you PU-LEASE take it from me?" I’ll often whine in frustration. Somewhere along this tiring path to sleep, I either finally release it or simply pass out from my own self-inflicted exhaustion. Either way, I am entirely too familiar with hanging onto wrong/stinkin thinking, so I’m especially grateful for the reminder of my God given weapons. May He lead me into a peaceful surrender as I lay my head down in rest tonight. Thanks, Pastor Fred, for a wonderful message!
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