Take Every Thought Captive

Take Every Thought Captive        

In my last post we looked at girding up the loins of our minds. One of the main things we must do in order to accomplish this is to take our thoughts captive and bring them in line with God’s Word.

Today I’m sharing an article on this topic which I believe does a great job of giving us practical, biblical ways to accomplish this challenging assignment.

6 Ways to Take Your Thoughts Captive by Richard L. Ganz, Ph.D.

What you put in your mind has an effect on what you think. Remember those scary movies you watched as a kid, then had nightmares? It didn't take long to realize that the way to avoid the nightmares was to stop watching that kind of movie. God has provided a way to overcome unhealthy thoughts and behaviors, and gain the self-control you seek. It's a matter of taking charge of your life - His way.  

2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us that we are to "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."

Here are 6 ways to take your thoughts captive:
 

1. Accept responsibility for your thoughts. You have the ability to exercise control over your thoughts. God warned Cain to focus his mind on the right things, but Cain chose to think about the wrong things - anger and jealousy - which led to his murderous actions. Are you willing to admit that you can, with God's help, regain control of your thoughts - and think enabling thoughts instead of disabling ones?
    
2. Your mind - not just your behavior - must change. God calls us to change sinful behavior that does not honor and please Him. Instead of focusing on your outward behavior, work on disciplining your mind - from which the behaviors stem. Allow God to transform you by the renewing of your mind (Rom. 12:2).
    
3. Think through your problems rather than just react to them. When you experience difficult challenges, you can react to them and think yourself into despair every time. Or you can look forward to the next opportunity and ask yourself what you learned from this failure. Is your first thought I'll never do anything right? You don't have to get trapped by disabling thoughts. You are capable of getting out of your shame, despair, hopelessness, and anger - by taking control of your thoughts.
    
4. Take your disabling thoughts captive through confession. Paul urges us to "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (Rom. 12:21). Confront your disabling thoughts. Turn them over to God and become who He sees you can be. It will take work to take your thoughts captive each time they pop into your mind. But it is possible with the help of the Holy Spirit.
    
5. Choose to focus your thoughts on the right things. We are to think about those things that are "true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable" (Phil. 4:8). When we think on those things, God promises to give us His peace. What a contrast that is to the thoughts of millions of people today. Don't look to a movie, TV show, or how-to formula to accomplish this for you. It takes personal discipline and commitment.
    
6. It is possible. It is not easy to retrain your thoughts or to respond in new Christ-like ways. Take heart: as God empowers you to focus your mind on the right things, it will become easier. You can develop a new frame of reference, based on what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy.

It is possible to live a life aware of our thoughts and take them captive! God gave us the Holy Spirit to empower us. Start following these steps today to gain power over your mind and thoughts.
 

 Richard L. Ganz, Ph.D., clinical psychology, previously served on the clinical psychiatry faculty at Upstate Medial Center in Syracuse, N.Y., and is an adjunct faculty member at Syracuse University. He also spent five years working with Dr. Jay Adams at the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation in Philadelphia. He is now a pastor in the Ottawa Reformed Presbyterian Church and president of Ottawa Theological Hall in Canada. http://richardganz.com/

From: http://www.crosswalk.com/faith/prayer/prayers/take-your-thoughts-captive-509888.html

©Copyright 2017 Connie Wohlford

Your Kids—For such a time as this

Your Kids—For such a time as this

Are you anxious about the world in which you’re raising your children? 

Does your plea to God go something like: “Oh, God, what kind of world are my children growing up in—so much hate and violence!”?

It happened again a couple days ago. My friend, who’s a young mom with an infant and a four year old, posted: “Unlike a lot of people these days, I will teach my children to love—not hate, judge, or condemn. It breaks my heart that this is the world my sweet babies have to grow up in.” 

My reply to her: “Good for you. Always know that God deliberately put you and your babies on the planet for just this time in history to serve His great purpose. You’re teaching them about God and His ways—that’s the main thing.”

Hers is the heart cry of many parents today. The world is scary and seems to get worse with each passing day.

I can’t imagine raising children without the hope of Christ—without the assurance that my children (and grandchildren) are on God’s side and in His care.

Even in cases where a child has wandered away from God or is floundering in their faith, parents can still pray in faith for the prodigal and confused. Those parents can still have the assurance that God knows, God cares, and God loves their child even more that the parents themselves (which is hard to even imagine).

We parents and grandparents look out across the landscape of our world and see all manner of possible troubles heading in the direction of our innocent offspring. Our insides may tremble at the horrors both real and imagined. 

When our minds go wild with the terrifying possibilities we have got to STOP! We must lasso and pull in these destructive thoughts. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

So we need to know that we have access to supernatural weapons. We don’t stand alone, struggling to protect our children from evil whether it be man-made or demonic. God wants to fight for us and alongside of us. And He has an angelic army at His bidding. In the world are many arguments and high things exalting themselves against the knowledge of God. A synonym for argument is influence. There are countless influences and high-minded people out there who are against God and all that God represents. But what is our knowledge of God and how can we bring our thoughts captive into the obedience of Christ? 

Let’s look at that passage in The Message:

“The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity” (1 Corinthians 10:4-6 The Message).

So we can be confident that God knows what He’s doing. He determines when each of us is born. He planned out when Moses would be born and knew how He would protect him from the murderous hands of Pharaoh’s soldiers.

He had it all figured out when to put a ruddy, bright-eyed boy on Bethlehem’s hillsides tending sheep. Then in God’s timing, that shepherd boy became a man after God’s own heart and the greatest king in Israel’s history.

God saw to it that Billy Graham would be born in 1918 and grow up on a dairy farm near Charlotte, North Carolina. He came to be known as America’s Pastor, and showed the way to salvation to millions of souls around the globe.

And in the fullness of time, God sent His Son to redeem Mankind. Jesus was born to just the right earthly parents, at just the right time, and in just the right place. Then on just the right day, He was crucified to pay the debt we owed for our sins. And in just the right instant He was quickened back to life.

Child worshiping God

We needn’t question why God brought our little ones into such a harsh world. Instead we can be confident that His timing is impeccable. 

When Esther feared for her life at the request of her elder cousin, Mordecai, he then said to her, “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

We can be sure that our children, our grandchildren, and we ourselves have been born into this world for such a time as this. Just like David we can be confident that God knew us before we were born. He knew ahead of time the things we would say and do. He watched over us as we were formed in our mother’s womb and prophesied His great plan for our lives, as he wrote in Psalms 139.

Does this mean that our kids will always make the right decisions and stay on the straight and narrow? No. We didn’t, did we? 

Like us, they have free will. And we really wouldn’t change that. So we pray, and train, and teach, and pray some more. And in all that, we trust God, knowing he handpicked each of us to be on His planet at His timing in history.

Back to my friend with the infant and four year old. In her next comment in our conversation, she said, “When your 4 year old randomly starts singing ‘God is on the move—hallelujah!’ you know you're doing something right. lol”

Yes, amen! She and her husband are doing lots right. Let’s rear our children, according to God’s instructions, not binging intimidated by the world around us. We’re not in this alone. God has given us everything we need to get this most important job right. “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3 ESV). 

Let’s pray. Oh, Lord, You know the cries of our hearts. Thank You that You hear our pleas and that You care. We’re grateful that You told us to cast our cares on You for You care for us. Though hard to imagine, we know You love our children even more than we do ourselves. Help us to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of You, Lord. Thank You, Father for hearing and answering our prayers. In Jesus name—Amen. 

©Copyright 2017 Connie Wohlford