"We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5
The Lord has put this verse in my path at every turn! You know how that happens sometimes. Well, I've been meditating on this verse and thinking about it a lot. I used to think it had to do with destroying false teaching outside of myself (like recognizing when you're being fed a false gospel). But now I realize it's about destroying false teaching inside of ourselves!! Hence, "take every thought captive to obey Christ". And there is a huge thought! Every one of our thoughts are suppose to obey Christ too! That's daunting! Because I'm just proud of myself for not saying that snide remark about another mom to my friend or husband, but I still thought it! All the more reason for grace. But back to this verse. Here is a simple example of how we allow worldly advice to sit in our brains without taking it captive. Several months ago (could it have been practically a year ago??!!) I was talking to a younger mama who is about my height but is much skinnier and prettier. She was sharing her recent conviction about wearing short shorts because her daughters were getting older and she wanted to set a great example for them! I was so excited for her following the Lord in modesty! Then she said, "The problem is, I don't look good in anything except short shorts!!" Obviously anyone who has been exposed to the fashion world knows that if you have long lean legs short shorts look really good on you! This is what she meant and it was causing her real frustration. She had allowed bad advice from the world to sit in her mind and tell her what made her most beautiful! If she had taken that thought captive and examined it in light of the Bible then she would've discovered what the Lord's advice is on a woman being beautiful. Obviously we spoke about that and I hope that she was encouraged in knowing that she didn't have to show off her body to be beautiful. A more deceptive example... early in this pregnancy I struggled a lot with grief. I cried constantly from the time I got the positive pregnancy test until I heard that heart beat at 12 weeks. We had very prayerfully decided that we wanted to continue to trust the Lord with any future babies He might bless us with but when I saw that positive test I did not immediately feel like it meant another baby, I just KNEW that it meant another loss. So I started mourning right away. Total lack of hope and faith. Around 9 weeks I called a friend who is about 15 years older than me and she had had four miscarriages around the same time that we had our three. I called her and confessed my horrible, morbid thoughts. And told her it was time for her to preach at me and get my heart into the right place! Turns out, she was 9 weeks pregnant too and was battling the exact same thoughts. But seeing as how she was older than I and so much better she had great biblical advice for me. In Ecclesiastes 3 we find the famous "There is a time for everything" passage. There is a time to grieve and when you are pregnant with a healthy baby, then it's not time. Also, in Philippians 4, we find a list of the things we should be thinking on: Whatever is honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. No where in there does it say, "think on the worst case scenario". I still struggled a LOT until I heard the heartbeat, but I had the correct thoughts to replace my "arguments and lofty opinions". On a side note, my friend is still pregnant with a growing baby and her and I have the same due date! Obviously this post could be endless with examples because the more closely I pay attention the more I unearth false advice/teachings in my brain. It's an all day long kind of job. And the only remedy is knowing the Word more thoroughly so that you can recognize that lofty opinion when it rears it's ugly head. The World and our flesh constantly feed us lies and the problem comes when we spend too much time listening to ourselves and not enough time listening to the TRUTH from God. I challenge you to ask yourself "where is that in the Bible" every time a thought crosses your mind! "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set your mind on things of the flesh is death, but to set your mind on the Spirit is life and peace." Romans 8:5-6 "The main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it. This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? .... The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’–what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’–instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet priase Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God’." Martin Lloyd-Jones http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmAdRluq2hQ This is a link to a song from Propaganda's new album called "I don't see it". The song isn't totally on this topic but close enough that I've been listening to it a lot lately! It is really good.
1 Comment
Cinda
7/14/2014 12:44:40 am
This post reminded me of a new music video by Colbie Callait (I think - I am not familiar with her) - she was disturbed by all the photo shopped way that make women look beautiful so did the video almost as a protest. It's called Try and talks about how we can like ourselves for who we are - just as we are. Several women are in the video with full makeup and hairdo but by the end, they all have no makeup on and look plain- even Colbie! It's very powerful!!
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