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 10:4,5
Image |
During our challenge week, I'm ashamed to admit I only occasionally remembered to monitor my thoughts. That's telling all in itself. My thoughts wander up and down some very dark and sinful allies. Ouch! What is going on in there?
I ended the week with relatively few instances of attempting to control my wayward thought life.
I know if I am experiencing jealousy, envy, anger, and covetousness, for example, I need to round up those sinful thoughts and cut them out of the pack. My problem is remembering, or wanting, to do it. Mostly, I keep entertaining that ugliness like a welcome guest in my consciousness.
Image |
My first takeaway from the exercise was that my thoughts are undisciplined renegades too used to going their own way. I have never practiced taking my thoughts captive, therefore it is a new spiritual discipline for me, and much more difficult than I would have imagined.
My second takeaway was that sinful thoughts aren't my only issue. For me, time-wasting thoughts are equally a problem. I consider circumstances that aren't real, haven't happened and may never happen and spend way too much time considering them. Additionally, I replay old conversations and re-imagine old situations over and over in my heard contemplating what I could have or should have said. I am always the conversational victor scoring hurtful points over my foe.
Taking my time-wasting thoughts one step farther, what about the time I spend imagining my dream house, or what different outfits I could wear when attending a future event. Nothing wrong with a little imagining and planning. But how much time am I spending in fanciful thinking?
Although our challenge ended weeks ago, the Lord is continuing to show me glimpses of what my thought life should look like. I intend to persevere because . . .
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 2:5
Linking to Teaching What is Good
Keep capturing those thoughts dear.
ReplyDeleteAmen and amen. I just wish there weren't so many of them.
DeleteThank you for encouraging me to do this too--although it seems really really hard!
ReplyDeleteHarder then I ever would have imagined!
DeleteLovely to hear from you!!!
I'm struggling with this right now. I was up at night thinking, thinking, angry, etc. I'm praying for the Lord to give me victory and help me.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your reminder about praying for victory and help because we can't do it on our own, can we?
DeleteJoyce Meyer writes a lot about the mind and how it distracts us from Godly things. I struggle with this too...just keeping my mind on Christ. The world is so full of shallow, but appealing things!
ReplyDeleteReally appreciate this post. God is taking me through another round of working on this...so important! Elizabeth George's "Loving God with All Your Mind" is a great resource in this area. I'm going to pull it out and read it again this week.
ReplyDelete