Are My Thoughts Being Held Captive?
Have you ever gone through a season where you are just so overwhelmed by life’s circumstances? “How did this happen?” “Why am I going through this?” “I don’t understand what I did to deserve all of this.” The questions revolving around each specific situation can be never ending at times. We can try and figure out different reasonings for why things are the way they are on our own, but it just leaves us even more confused. We tend to create different scenarios about our specific situations because we are trying to handle it on our own. I am speaking to myself just as much as anyone else here. Our thoughts can be overwhelming at times, which causes chaos within. We know that God is not the author of confusion, but sometimes it is tough to see God’s hand in certain areas of our life that may be extra challenging or possibly falling apart.
So, how do we combat these thoughts and gain some mental clarity?
In 2 Corinthians 10:5 we are instructed that “We [are to] take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Maybe something in your life is so broken and you do not know how to fix it, you do not know how giving our thoughts fully over to God is going to accomplish anything. It takes a LOT of hard work to retrain our minds to have better clarity. Taking our thoughts and giving God full responsibility is not easy by any means. But man, oh man, do we gain so much more peace when we do.
Another way to combat our thoughts is to, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.” (1 Peter 5:7). Giving our thoughts, worries, and all our cares over to God, sometimes feels like a toddler who is not willing to share their toys with anyone. Almost like we are continually tugging back at our “toys” so that we can stay in control of them. Relinquishing full control to another power other than our own is SO scary. We cannot see the outcome.
Thoughts that stem from situations we may face can be detrimental. We may need to physically LET GO and take a step back from our situation to re-evaluate it with fresh eyes. As Charlotte Gambill says, “Re-entering the room,” so to speak. Things will not improve in your life by entering a “new room,” altogether. Seeing things with fresh eyes and a new perspective will, and that takes maturity. There is a beauty in our situations that have been there all along that we just have not seen yet, because our vision was so clouded. Once we took that physical step back to re-evaluate, we were able to see that beauty. There are things God wants to help you fix that you cannot do on your own. Believe me, I have tried. “Don’t throw away something that God is going to help you save just simply by you re-entering the room [with a new perspective]” - Charlotte Gambill.
Until we hand over FULL control of our thoughts, cares, and worries to God, we will not fully experience freedom, restoration, or healing in our situations. A peace in just knowing that it will all align how it should, will follow suit. It all starts with taking our thoughts captive.
By Jill Swillum posted on Sep 25, 2020