Taking Every Thought Captive I

I think run-away thoughts are one of the biggest problems that most of us have. I've started teaching a series on this to the women at our church. Here's the first installment.

Our thoughts lead to our emotions which lead to our attitudes which lead to our actions. So, in order to control anything, we need to take control of our thoughts. When our thoughts are faith-filled, this is good. I'm not talking about some great amount of faith that we muster up on our own, but about where we direct our faith - toward God.

Negative or toxic thoughts affect us. Aren't the most negative people you know also the most miserable? And remember, our thoughts don't just come from us, or from what we receive through our five senses, but we have a very real enemy and we need protection. Our protection is the armor of God. (Eph. 6:16-18) We need:

Faith in God - our dependence upon Him is protection.
Salvation - receiving the work that Christ has done for us.
Word of God - His Word is truth.
Prayer - our relationship with God.

The word of God gives instruction about our thinking 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. Demolish comes from the Greek word kathairesis which means demolition or the destruction of a fortress. We have toxic thoughts that have become strongholds. Sometimes we don't even know they're strongholds. The word stronghold is used to talk about any strong points or arguments in which one trusts. A stronghold is ANYTHING that we hold on to that ends up holding us. Sometimes we swat at them like we swat at mosquitos, but only God has the divine dynamite to destroy them.

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. Sounds impossible, doesn't it? And it is - apart from God. "Arguments" is used of thoughts that precede and determine our actions. These arguments are our excuses and rationalizations for doing what we want to do instead of surrendering to Christ's authority. "Pretension" is something that we elevate. It seems to mean pride in this context. Interestingly enough, "sets itself up" is a word that in Greek means to hoist up as a sail...to lift up ones eyes. Satan wants us to worship Him, but is content if he can get our eyes off of God. The direction of our worship can be determined by the focus of our eyes. "We take every thought captive" is kind of obvious. The verb tense it is written in means that we need to do it repeatedly and continuously. All of us have a battleground in our minds.

To make our thoughts obedient to Christ means they are submitted to Him - that we want to do what He wants us to do. We need to become conscious of our thinking.