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“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.”
2 Corinthians 10:5-6
One of the most memorable scenes from the classic movie “The Wizard of Oz” is where Dorothy, a young girl who gets magically transported to this strange world, comes to the end of a quest to return home and is told that her ticket home is simply to click her shoes, close her eyes and say the words “there’s no place like home.”
When it comes to overcoming unwanted thoughts, don’t you wish that things would be as simple as it was for Dorothy – that we can just click our shoes, close our eyes and say some magic words and watch those thoughts disappear? Well it just might be.
There’s a saying that goes: stinking thinking leads to stinking living. Your thoughts have the power to affect your actions and thus affect your legacy. The purpose of your life depends heavily on the thoughts that you have and the thoughts you don’t. Not all the thoughts you currently have in your head belong there, but the good news is that God has provided us a way to get rid of thoughts and that’s to take captive of them. How do we do that?
2 Corinthians 10:4 tells us, “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”
The key to winning the battle in the mind and taking thoughts captive starts by first acknowledging that the battle is spiritual and that there is a supernatural enemy.
The Bible tells us that Satan is the father of lies. His intention is to plant deceptive thoughts in us and convince us that they are truths. His intention is to get you to believe these lies that you are no good, that God is not for us, that we cannot experience the freedom of Christ and other lies that will pull us away from God’s presence.
These thoughts can often be powerful thoughts that can become destructive if they are not uprooted right away. It starts by knowing who put them there and knowing what we’re up against.
As much as it may seem that we cannot win against the expert cunningness of our enemy, we know that Jesus can and Jesus already has. So the goal is not to make our thoughts obey us, but ultimately to obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” Things are best done in the power and capacity of Christ because unlike ours, His power and capacity are limitless.
The finished work of Christ on the cross is what gives us a way out of negative thinking and destructive thoughts by reminding us that Jesus has made a way for us to experience freedom. It assures us of our true identity so that the lies that Satan tries to plant do not take root.
So we are left with the option to fill our minds with thoughts of Christ and watch them swallow up any other thought that may limit, paralyze or disable us. Question is will you take that option? When we are filled with the hope that is in Christ, it radically transforms our mindsets consequently also changing our actions and our legacy for the better.
