I have had a couple of rough months lately... for several reasons but I will spare you all the gory details :) My main struggle has been primarily with my thoughts... as usual... What else is new, right?! Can any of you relate?? Although, I do have to say that this time the thoughts came from a different direction so I was caught off guard and it took me a little while longer to get back on track. I have been wanting to write about "taking our thoughts captive" for a while so, now that I am on the other side of this, I thought that now might be a good time :)
Jesus has already won the VICTORY!
The enemy of our souls is constantly waging war against us... lying, deceiving, distracting and constantly working to keep us off track from our purpose as servants of the Lord. He even uses "good" things to distract us from what is "best" ("When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye..." (Genesis 3:6). Our mind is truly the only place where the battle continues to wage because Jesus has already WON the victory for us!! Do we truly KNOW that the battle has already been won? Do we live in the freedom He died to give us or continue to allow the enemy to take us captive even though Christ has already completely paid for our freedom?? Do we combat the lies with the truth of who we are in Christ? Or do we just let him control our thoughts and let them run away with us? Just for example, how many of us are still bound up in FEAR and ANXIETY.... ? This world has pumped us FULL of reasons to fear but Jesus has not given us a spirit of "fear" but of Love, Power and a sound mind! (2 Timothy 1:7 kJV) Perfect love casts out all fear...(1John 4:18) And how many times does He say "Do not fear"... Do we believe these truths or do we believe the lies that keep us in fear and in bondage?
What thoughts should we take CAPTIVE?
So, back to the question in the subject line "What thoughts should we take CAPTIVE?" Here is a really good scripture to help us with the answer to that question: "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 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 10:3-5)
Did you catch that!!?? We take captive every thought that "sets itself up against the KNOWLEDGE of God" Those are the thoughts that are most dangerous to our freedom in Christ. I had never seen that before until recently!! I always just skipped to the "take captive every thought" part. Wow. The enemy does NOT want us to KNOW God... Hmmm very interesting!! Why do you think that is?? Could it be that there is freedom and power in our knowledge of Him?? When we truly KNOW Him, we will KNOW the Truth, and the Truth will SET US FREE!! Now, here is another question... Do we know and trust Christ enough to make this happen now? Do we know Him, His love for us and the freedom He has purchased for us enough to "stand your ground" and "stand firm" in the truth and full armor of God when the enemy comes against you with lies and distractions (Ephesians 6)? If not, what are we doing about it??
Busyness.... Worry and Fear
So, what are the thoughts that come against our knowledge of God? One of the biggies in this day and age is busyness. Thinking we need to "DO" things for Christ... and thinking we don't have the time and are too busy to spend the time we know we need with Him; "I don't have time for you today Lord, I am too busy with church and Bible studies, children and activities... maybe tomorrow... or next week?" I served the church and worked for God with my whole heart, for many years, but after all those years of hard work, I did not KNOW God any better than I did when I started, yet, those were the very things that kept me from spending time with Him!! Other thoughts that come against the knowledge of God, as I mentioned earlier, are worry and fear... about provision... will we have enough? Worry about health, stability, family.... All of those thoughts keep our minds so busy with worry and fear that we are not meditating on God's truth and amazing provision He has already provided for us!! "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life....? (Matthew 6:25-32)
Is God enough?
And, yet another battle of the mind, for those of us who have husbands that are addicts, are thoughts about our husbands!! Focusing too much on him and the things he doesn't do (that we want him to do) and the things he does do (that we don't want him to do), and finding fault in things that he does that make us angry and then we run scenario's over and over in our minds of things that have never, and will never happened... We spend so much wasted time on these unproductive and unpleasant thoughts that just tear us down and not build us up. We need to ask ourselves; Do I trust God with my husband? Is God BIG enough, strong enough, wise enough? Does the creator of the universe, heaven and earth, and all the things in them, need my help to fix things? These are just a few examples of the lies that come against the knowledge of God... how about you?? Can you think of any??
What does the Bible say about seeking the knowledge of God?
The last couple of years God has given me this burning desire to KNOW Him... I mean truly KNOW Him. Not just know "about" Him or "of" Him, or even rely on all the things I have been taught about Him, but really truly get to know HIM. So, now, whenever I am reading the Bible, I am seeing, (like for the first time) all the scriptures that talk about KNOWING God and Jesus and seeking the Knowledge of God. Here are a few that I have found:
"Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done." Romans 1:28
"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him." 2 Corinthians 2:14
"For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." 2 Corinthians 4:6
"...until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." Ephesians 4:13
"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding." Colossians 1:9
"And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God," Colossians 1:10
"Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth," 2 Timothy 2:25 - (Remember, Jesus is the way, the "Truth" and the life)
"Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness-- " Titus 1:1
"Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." 2 Peter 1:2
"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." 2 Peter 1:3 This is a powerful one!! Our knowledge of Him will give us EVERYTHING we need for life and godliness... wow.
"What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ" Philippians 3:8
"He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, " 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.'" Luke 8:10
He is speaking to His disciples here, the ones who "knew" Him the best...
Have NO other motivation...?
In Oswald Chamber's September 16th entry he is talking about prayer. He say's that we should all have times when we go to our quiet and secret places of prayer and during that time he say's that we should "Have no motivation other than to know your Father in heaven." Now, that is a new one... and very challenging! Aren't we supposed to pray for others? Pray for ourselves? Seek direction and answers to our life's questions?? I believe that when we have "no motivation other than to know" our Father in heaven, all those things will be answered and taken care of (Matthew 6:33)!!! That is another one of Satan's distractions of what is "good" but not "best"! Yes, it is a good thing to pray for others, it is a good thing to seek God's counsel for life choices, but what is best is to truly KNOW HIM, walk with Him talk with Him, searching out the wonders of who He is... like you would with your first love ("Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart...). One of my favorite song lyrics is "I want to know the color of your eyes"... YES! That is my hearts desire!! I can so see Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, looking into His eyes (as Martha is all flustered with the cares of the meal), and she is longingly looking into the face of her Lord, listening to every word He speaks... saying nothing but desiring to catch every word that comes from His mouth... I believe Mary truly wanted to "know" God and Martha was struggling with all the thoughts that "set themselves up against the knowledge of God."
What does it mean to "Know" God?
So, how do we define "knowing" God? What does that really mean? I looked up a couple definitions to the original words that were used in these scriptures and have listed them below:
Thayer Definition:
1) to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of perceive, feel
1a) to become known
2) to know, understand, perceive, have knowledge of
2a) to understand
2b) to know
3) Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse between a man and a woman
4) to become acquainted with, to know
(I am seeing some "action" words here....)
Thayer Definition:
1) to become thoroughly acquainted with, to know thoroughly
1a) to know accurately, know well
2) to know
2a) to recognise
2a1) by sight, hearing, of certain signs, to perceive who a person is
2b) to know, i.e. to perceive
2c) to know, i.e. to find out, ascertain
2d) to know, i.e. to understand
Relationship and Intimacy
All of these definitions really just boil down to "relationship"... and "intimacy". The more time you spend with someone, invest your time with them, and pursue them, the more you will know them... That knowledge of them comes in handy when someone else comes along and speaks lies about that person! If you truly know that person you can refute those lies with the truth of who they are... but if you don't know them, how can you do that?
So, in a nutshell, the thoughts that we are to take captive are;
every thought that keeps you from pursuing and knowing God, thoughts that cause fear and anxiety, thoughts that make you doubt God's goodness and the truth of who He is and His love for you. Thoughts that He is too busy, too weak, and/or just can't handle you or your life. You need to take those thoughts captive by not allowing them to consume your thoughts and influence your behavior and then replace those lies with the truth of who God is and who you are in Him... but, remember, that requires "knowing" Him and who you are in Him :) Boy, this is so much easier said than done!!
Father, I truly want to KNOW You... I pray that you would give us ALL that burning desire, hunger and thirst that David had when he said "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God." (Psalms 42:1). I thank you also for the insight as to what the enemy is trying to distract us from... The knowledge of you is what gives us "everything we need for life and godliness"! Help us Lord to take our thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ and not let the enemy distract us with the "good" things when we can have the "best"!! I pray that you would show each of us what that means and looks like in each of our lives, and give us the strength to live it out. In Jesus name I pray, Amen!
