We were in Tennessee a few years ago for my grandma’s memorial service, and we stayed with my Aunt and Uncle…and so did my cousin. With his two young grandsons. They were all boy. They were a bundle of motion from sun up to sun down. They never stopped. They were hard to control. They made us older folk tired just watching them.
We had to get up at early o’clock to start our drive home, and Mikel and I crept into the kitchen as quietly as possible. As soon as we saw my uncle Gus, he looked at us, pointed to where the boys were sleeping, and said real serious-like, “Don’t wake up the storm!”
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but 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 (II Corinthians 10:4-5)
Sometimes our thoughts can be like my cousins. They’re just a bundle of motion from sun up to sun down. They never stop. They run away from you. They’re hard to control. They make you tired. Have you ever laid in bed just thinking about a situation and got up exhausted and almost drenched in sweat….just from thinking?
God’s Word has a lot to say about what to do with our thoughts…what to do with our minds. Here it says we are to take every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
When you take something captive, you abduct it, apprehend it, imprison it, arrest it. When you take something captive, it no longer has a will of its own. It has to bend its will to yours.
This is what we’re supposed to do with our thoughts. We are to take them captive. And..if we don’t take our thoughts captive, our thoughts WILL take us captive.
Our thoughts affect us more than we realize. They affect our moods…how we respond to things…what we do. They affect our entire lives. We can focus on things we even know are not true….but in our minds they seem so real, and they impact our actions!
I remember one time I had an awful dream that Mikel and Alli were in a car accident and died. In my dream, my boys and I were standing at their caskets and then I woke up. (I know…morbid, right?)
But that night, I was driving with my kids somewhere, and that dream popped back into my thoughts….and I kept thinking about it…and kept thinking about it…and kept thinking about it….and do you know what happened?
I started sobbing. Now, mind you, Mikel and Alli are still very much alive. Alli is sitting in the back seat talking to her brothers. But every time I replayed that dream in my mind, it seemed so real…..I couldn’t help it. I was sobbing.
The good news is we have total control over what we think. We don’t always have control over what pops into our heads….but we can decide whether or not our thoughts hold us captive or we take them captive.
Have you ever fought waking up in the morning because you didn’t want to “wake up the storm”? I have been there more times than I can count….now, if I can’t sleep because I’m being held captive by those thoughts, I’ll put a podcast or some music on my ipod and let that saturate my mind. His Word brings peace and life, and then I can rest and get back to sleep.
We can only think one thing at a time. When thoughts of doubt or depressing thoughts or untrue thoughts come into our minds….we can choose to replace them with what the Word says…..replace them with the good news. We can replace them with thoughts of the Healer or the Provider or the Joy-giver or the One who gives Peace.
Faith doesn’t deny the facts….it chooses to focus on the Truth…His Word! Let’s get control of the storm of thoughts floating around our heads. That’s when we will walk in His peace!
You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You. (Isaiah 26:3)