Taking Every Thought Captive

One of the challenges of our spiritual lives is sorting out our thoughts. We have all kinds of them: quick, random things that come through our mind (ie. songs from the 80's), strong impressions that sink into our memories, repetetive messages playing in the background like a radio we can't turn off, and many, many more. Have you ever thought about the fact that you are the only human that has access to your mind AND that you have authority over it? This may seem untrue when your mind is being bombarded with messages through advertising over the TV or when you sense the enemy of our souls is tempted you with a thought put into your mind. But it is true. God has commanded us to take every thought captive. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says "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." This is spoken in the context of not waging war like the world does. We are told in verse 4 that we have "divine power to demolish strongholds". Sometimes those strongholds are in your mind and need to be taken captive.

"Sounds great," you may say, "but how am I to take my thoughts captive?" Let me share an illustration that may help. Imagine a court room. The Judge is Christ, the "person" on trial is your thought, and you get to be the court police. Taking a thought captive means dragging it into court before Jesus and asking His judgement of the thought. If He charges it as not according to His ways, then you must banish the thought from your mind. It has no right to be there. Only thoughts that are obedient to Christ are to dwell in your minds.

Clint uses a different image when talking about taking every thought captive. He focuses on the latter part of the verse "to make it obedient to Christ". In his illustration, a thought is branded by Christ the way that calves are branded by the rancher. The thought needs to take on the quality and content of the Kingdom of God. Let me give you an example. Say my thought is "I am such a loser, nobody loves me." In the court room, that thought would be thrown out - "not true" pronounces Christ the Judge. But in order for it to become obedient to Christ, the thought needs to be transformed by Christ. "I feel like a loser because I did so poorly on my exam but I know that I am loved, forgiven, and cherished by God. I may have failed that test but I am still a valuable child of God. I'm so thankful that God loves me."

Taking every thought captive is a challenging discipline. But it is essential if we are not going to let the circumstances of our lives dictate our thoughts. I think of the book/movie "The Hiding Place" and how Bessie Ten Boom was able to keep such a joyful, thankful attitude in the middle of concentration camp. It wasn't that each day she was waking up to the smell of a wonderful breakfast or that she was surrounded by all of her family and friends. No, she was determined to be obedient in her thought life which then impacted her words, her actions, and the lives of those around her. Don't let your circumstances or Satanic strongholds define your thoughts - take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ! Rejoice that the Holy Spirit will give you the guidance on how to do it.