Taking Thoughts Captive

Most of us have had those sleepless nights with endless thoughts running through our head. Or maybe we are consumed with distracting thoughts as we go about our day. How many times do we find those thoughts to be exhausting, defeating or fruitless? How do we overcome and quiet those thoughts which seem to overtake us?

Jesus shows us how in ‭Mark‬ ‭4. Here, Jesus and his disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee and starting in verse 37, we read,

"A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm."

When we are drowning in waves of despair, worry, uncertainty, grief, sadness, fear, doubt, anger, addiction, sin or any other unproductive thought, Jesus has given us the power to command "Peace! Be still!". In the original Greek, this phrase is translated as "Quiet! Muzzle it!"

Jesus has given us authority and power through the Holy Spirit to declare that same command upon any fruitless, distracting thought consuming our minds. Isn't that powerful?!

Jesus tells us in ‭Luke‬ ‭10:19‬,
"I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you."

And we really are overcoming the enemy when we are trampling any fruitless thought. As we read in ‭Ephesians‬ ‭6:12‬, our struggle is against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." This is why God has provided us with His armor and tells us to put it on so we can stand firm and Paul tells us in Ephesians‬ ‭6:16‬,

"In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one."

The enemy strives to do whatever he can to distract us from the peace, hope, truth and joy that God has for us. The enemy believes that if he can distract us enough, then we will forget God's promises and the fulfillment which only God can provide... thus causing us to turn to worldly sources of temporary relief and sometimes resulting in harmful consequences.

Apostle Paul teaches us in 2 Corinthians‬ ‭10:3‭-‬5‬,
"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."

Not only can we declare our authority over fruitless thoughts, but we can squeeze them out by flooding our minds with the word of God. We can do this by repeating a scripture to ourselves or reading His word or singing a worship song filled with His truth. And when we do so, we need to be laser-focused, not allowing any other distracting thought to enter in.

By flooding our thoughts with the word of God, we are planting seeds of hope, faith, peace, and joy. And this leaves no room for fruitless thoughts.

It is vital that we leave no room for those weeds nor allow the consuming cares of this world to overcome us. Jesus tells us why in his parable of the sower in Mark 4:19 where he tells us that "the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful."

So let us take up the authority and power given us, command those fruitless thoughts to be quiet and flood our minds with the truth and promises of God's word... and by doing so, we WILL take EVERY thought CAPTIVE and OBEDIENT to Christ.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The mission of Daily God Gems is to share God's word and be a source of encouragement, peace, love and unity in Messiah. Visit us at www.facebook.com/dailygodgems and www.dailygodgems.com