I sort of stumbled, just a little, yesterday. Daughter asked me, "
How does one take every thought captive?" And my mind sort of blanked out. I gave her the right answer, just not the best answer. So, I thought this would make a good post, as well as, answer her question!
2 Corinthians
4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 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.
Indeed, how does one hold one's thoughts captive?
And my mind this morning roamed back to my early years as a Christian. So long ago, so horrible, no wonder I really do not like remembering those years!
I was a very carnal non-Christian, we all are, no matter how well you thought of yourself. For me, not in the context of how this word is used in American Christian circles, but in terms of being worldly and oh so self-centered. And when I became a Christian - that pull of the world did not magically disappear, nor did memories I should never have had. And I struggled with this verse.
How could Paul take every thought captive? Where did Jesus say we had to do this to be obedient to Him? This is just too hard! PERIOD!
And you know, when you challenge God, He is going to give you plenty of opportunities for self improvement..... Christians, people I trusted, led this young Christian down not so good of a path and yeah, gave me plenty of material to work with in trying to take my thought life captive.
How do you do it?
You have to be willing to battle yourself and your mind.
You have to be willing to pray a thousand times a day, for years, if that is that it takes.
Every time an inappropriate thought or memory comes to mind - you turn it over to God in prayer and ask Him to block such things from your mind.
Repeat as necessary.
No, you wail! But, yes, it is time plus obedience in prayer that is going to free you.
That freedom came after two years of solid prayer for me. I was convinced I was the worse Christian on the planet, but I knew I had to rid my mind of the worldliness which tormented me. Eventually, God helped all of those memories fade away, only reappearing within the context of helping others understand where I came from and/or to help them know what worked for me.
Across time you can take every thought captive, but it will not happen all at once, nor be an easy process. Why? I think it has something to do with God helping us to understand the gravity of what it was that separated us from Him. We never view our own sin with the appropriate horror, but when we are faced with killing its memories - mighty darn hard.
Of course, you also have to remember that we have an Accuser whom specializes in bringing up our past in our mind and through just the randomness of life. So, not only are you in need of prayer that God will remove and take captive those parts of our thought life which are in sin, but also to bind the evil one from the freedom to bring back situations, occurrences and memories which are not glorifying to God - nor yourself!
So, two prong attack: turning thoughts over to God for His trashcan, blocking evil from presenting you with your past as a way of stealing your freedom from yourself as a Christian.
If you have confessed your life to God, in Jesus, you are free - but still in bondage until you can free yourself from your past.
Sometimes I would be so angry at God! Why?!?!?!?!? Must I deal with all of the $^#$# from my past life? But, I had to. I am sure God laughed at my anger. He knows each of us from our smiling faces to our dark inner cores, and He still loves us, in spite of what that inner core really is. He wants to set us free from our past, so we can have a future, and think no more of ourselves than we should.
So, my dear readers, I am sure you have plenty to pray about today.....
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