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take captive every thought
to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5
Our overall sign for this set of devotions is the Road Work sign. It’s a reminder that if we’re going to be free, we have to do our part. It requires strength. It requires discipline. It requires thought.
In fact, thought is what today’s step is all about!
If you want to be free, it is wise to think about how you’ll handle situations before you encounter them.
As I was first thinking through this step toward freedom, I happened to have coffee with a friend. He was telling me that he used to counsel men past their addiction to pornography.
“What were the steps you used,” I asked.
He said that one of the biggest steps to freedom was thinking about how you’d handle a situation before it occurred. And to illustrate, he pointed to a pretty young lady who’d just walked through the door. “What would a man addicted to pornography be tempted to think when looking at her,” he said.
I nodded in understanding. “He’d probably think, ‘Wow, I’d like to …”
My friend said, “What we prompted our clients to do was to have always at their ready a counter response. Perhaps the person could think, could say to himself, ‘Jesus said … 'You must worship the LORD your God and serve only him.”’ Instead of “worshiping” a human figure, this addicted man would point himself back to God. Instead of making sex or a curvy body an idol, God would be his priority.
“He could also begin to ponder who’s little girl this young woman is, and see her as a person, as somebody’s precious child, and not as some object to be used.”
Do you see how that works? Part of escaping our enslavements is to keep alert, to be ready, to be vigilant and prepared.
For example, one of the best pieces of marital advice that my wife and I ever came across was … “assume the best of the other person.”
Think about it. How often do we assume – especially when we’re stressed – that the other person is unthinking, callous, angry, unloving, etc.? But what happens if we assume the best of the other person? “They didn’t intentionally forget to pick up the dry cleaning. They aren’t passive aggressive. They’re just as busy as I am, and forgetful too.”
Do you see how that might work?
How about other things that enslave you?
· … when you are grieving, what if you put on the helmet of salvation and stood on Scripture’s picture of heaven, remembering that, “[God] will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes, and death will be no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more”? Revelation 21:4
· … if you are worried, could you quote Holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boom? “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.”
See if you can come up with some counter-thought when some of these situations occur:
· … when you are angry, you could start thinking instead, _________
· … when you feel guilt or shame, you could cling to God’s forgiveness, saying, _______
· … when you are tempted by _____, you could remind yourself that _______
· … when you are _________ (what’s the enslavement that haunts you?), you could combat it with _________.
For worry and grief, I just googled scriptures on grief and Christian quotes about worry. You could do that too.
You could even talk to a friend – or your pastor – about how to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5
Are you alert? Are you prepared to keep sinking back into enslavement each day.
In Christ’s Love,
a guy who needs to
put on his thinking cap
before ever going outside
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