While I have no issue imagining amazing scenarios and situations, I do have a problem with believing that this could be the way things go.
Faith and hope. Those two words take me straight to Hebrews 11:1: Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see (NIV). Admittedly, I’ve often struggled to truly understand what this verse means. But based on what I think I understand, hope comes first. “Faith is confidence in what we hope for,” meaning the hoped for part has to have already been there right? So based on my potentially – hopefully – accurate exegesis of this scripture, the connection between my hope and my faith is broken. Please tell me I’m not the only one…
How do we fix this? I think a possible answer lies in the thing we’ve already mentioned: our thought life. Paul’s letter to the Philippians helped me figure this out. Throughout this book, Paul is urging the persecuted church at Philippi to see their story as a living testament to Jesus’ story, to find contentment and purpose, even in their suffering. In the final chapter, he pleads with them (and now with us) to not be anxious about anything, but to thankfully offer their normally anxiety-inducing circumstances to the Lord. In turn, His peace would guard them (I’d love to really break this whole verse down and dive into that word “guard” but alas… today is not the day).
Then we get to verse 8: Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Phil. 4:8 NIV). So while I’m so concerned with the things my mind chooses to wonder about, Paul tells us exactly what we should be thinking. Furthermore, this verse is sandwiched between two scriptures that mention the peace of God. So what I’m observing (and trying oh-so-carefully not to assume) is that the reign of God’s peace in my life can be interrupted by my thoughts.
The reign of God’s peace in my life can be interrupted by my thoughts.
True. Noble. Right. Pure. Lovely. Admirable. If it doesn’t fall into one of these categories, then it shouldn’t take up residence in the mind of a believer. Where do our thoughts go when they go a-wondering? This list ought to be the final destination. But how often does it actually go that way, and how can we make it happen more often?
Let’s revisit this idea of captive thoughts. When Paul – the apostle of conviction via correspondence – writes about this concept, he does so in the context of warfare, reminding the church at Corinth that we (disciples of Jesus) do not wage war as the world wages war. Rather, our weapons wield divine power to bring down 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 10:5 NIV).
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.
Last week, we talked about surrender, and compared it to battle of wills: ours vs. God’s. So this passage and its correlation to warfare seems fitting. But to understand our role in the battle, I think there are two key things to discuss in this verse. Let’s talk about it…
First, we see that we are to demolish these things that set themselves up against the knowledge of God. Well, what is the knowledge of God? Kind of a loaded question, right? But my mind immediately goes back to Philippians 4:8: whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable. As far as I can tell, nothing on earth can accurately be described by those words except for the character and things of God.
Second, taking thoughts captive. This seems incredibly daunting since most studies agree that humans have over 6,000 thoughts per day. (honestly, I feel like that number is a little low, but since I only have 6k thoughts and I’ve already used like half of them today, I don’t want to use any more trying to figure out the validity of this statistic. We’re rocking with 6k.) Point is, how on earth am I supposed to arrest every single one of my thoughts and make it obey Jesus?!
Enter Holy Spirit. This third person of the trinity seems to be the only way anything that is supposed to be done by a human being actually gets accomplished. It’s not us; it’s Him. The Holy Spirit helps us to discern whether the thoughts we have are the truth of God, or the lies of the enemy.
The prompting and conviction of the Holy Spirit sets off warning bells that this thought does not glorify God, therefore it is not for my good, and it absolutely must be stopped. So at His prompting, I can take that thought captive and put it in thought jail. Problem solved. Right?
Right-ish. See, in my experience, simply arresting the thought doesn’t complete the process. We have to close the loop. If we simply take the thought captive, we’ve forgotten about the last part of verse 5: make it obedient to Christ. We can’t just stop the thought; we have to replace the thought with something that brings our mind back to Jesus. We meditate on the truth of God’s word more than we rehearse the lies.
Simply arresting the thought doesn’t complete the process. We have to close the loop.
Boy, did I need to hear these words this morning! I have been wallowing in and giving voice to negative thoughts, knowing full well what I SHOULD be doing, and ignoring nudging and conviction of the Holy Spirit. After spending time this morning reading my Bible and repenting and asking Holy Spirit to allow the Word that is hidden in my heart to rebuke and correct me this blog post shows up! Thank you for your obedience to God’s calling and direction. He knew months ago when you sat down at your computer and allowed Him to guide your thoughts and fingers on the keyboard just what I would be walking through and what I would need to hear on this last day of August, 2022. Thank you for this reminder.
God knows. His correction is so loving, and His patience with us is overwhelming. Praying that we would all be quick to listen to HIM and act on His word for us. ❤️