Captive

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This week I was reading a book by one of my favorite Christian authors and she talked about taking our thoughts captive. In the book she was battling fearful thoughts, and she used the mental picture of putting those thoughts in a jail cell. This mental picture helped her take her thoughts captive and stop them from spiraling. Do you ever have thoughts that you need to take captive? Usually mine are fear and worry, but there are many types of thoughts that lead us further from God.

Why do we need to worry about our thoughts? In his second letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul says this, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 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.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. If we let our thoughts spiral, they will become a stronghold. What is a stronghold? A stronghold is a spiritual barrier – something that takes over your thoughts and your life and eventual becomes a barrier between you and God.

According to the book of Romans, we should let our minds be governed by the Spirit. Romans 8:5-6 says this: “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.  The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.” What about your thoughts? Are they controlled by the Holy Spirit or by the flesh? We should examine every thought and judge whether it is of the Spirit or of the flesh and decide if it is a thought that we should keep or one we should put in the slammer. Think about it!