Captive Thoughts

Captives are often pictured as being dragged away, violently kicking and screaming, resisting with all their might. This is the picture I have in my mind when I think of the verse that says "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."

The King James version, which I memorized, says it like this, "Casting down imagination, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every though to the obedience of Christ."

Here's how I see it. I am dragging my thoughts before the throne of Christ. They are sinful thoughts, they are useless imaginings, they are going to capture me if I don't deal with them.
Before I knew Christ Jesus, when I did not have something to do to actively occupy my mind, my thought life was a wasteland full of soap operas and romance novels.

We need to submit our thought life to God. Those imaginations or speculations are the "What ifs" the "If Onlys" and the other useless things we spend time thinking about. Sometimes we may have thoughts that reason away God and His truth. They seem so "intellectual" and culturally logical. But, they are false and empty. They will lead to sin.

We are responsible before God for our every thought. Jesus even said certain ways of thinking are equivalent to actual sin. Remember His conversation that a man who looks at a woman and lusts after her is guilty of sin? Just as if he had really done it, just as if he were an adulterer, because he is, in his mind. The same is true of a woman, she has become unfaithful in her mind, so she is!

When are you going to realize the battle is raging around you and in your mind as well? You have already surrendered if you are not taking your thoughts captive before Christ.

So how do you do that? You ask Christ to be the LORD of your conscious and unconscious mind. You purposefully input only good things into your mind. One thing to put in your mind is scripture. It is not as hard as you think. It is actually a joyful and peaceful practice. Do you not see that you are what you think!

Are you going to be a captive, or are you going to take your thoughts captive before they lead you into sin? This is the challenge of this verse. Are you up to it? Doma