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Just thinking about thoughts that we don't want doesn't really help. We want power over them. But how do we control them? In 2 Corinthians 10:3 Paul says:” For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds... and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." This last phrase is what we are interested in, and in Ephesians 6. 14 - 18, Paul details some of the armour we have available for warfare: "... the belt of truth buckled round your waist...the breastplate of righteousness... feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition... take up the shield of faith... the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers... praying for all the saints." We may be very familiar with these verses, but let us read them anew, from the specific standpoint of dealing with thoughts. Our purpose is to take every thought captive. When a captive is taken in war, the individual is first recognised as the enemy and imprisoned so that his movements are restricted and interrogated. We need to proceed similarly. As soon as we recognise a foreign thought (in the sense of not belonging to the spirituality of a disciple of Christ), we must arrest the thought, confront it, and restrict its freedom. We can do all this using the above weapons and defensive equipment which Paul has detailed for us. First, Paul tells us that we have truth. It can be likened to a belt round our waist, but it is still part of our weaponry. We need to ask, therefore, whether the thought is a truthful one? If not, it is the enemy. Even if it is truthful, there may be reasons why we do not wish to entertain it. Secondly, is it a righteous thought? Righteousness acts like a breastplate, defending us from that which would pierce us. In practice it means acting (and thinking!) always in ways of which God approves. Being righteous means being able to stand before the Father and therefore we ask if this thought undermines that ability? If so, it needs to be taken captive; we do that by deliberately refusing it permission to be active in our mind. How? We recognise that the promise of salvation has been won for us by Jesus Christ. What Jesus did on the cross is like a soldier's helmet which protects his head. Our remembrance of salvation and our intention never to put it at risk, reinforces our determination against evil thoughts which are like deadly blows from the enemy rained down on our head. Faith is as a shield to use against that which is directed against us. Every illicit thought falls into that category. But a shield was used in close co-operation with a soldier's sword. Hence Paul likens the word of God to a sword. So the practicality of this is that we draw out an appropriate word from the arsenal of living words which God has given in Scripture. We have various kinds of swords for dealing with different kinds of enemies and their defences, For example, if we cry out to God he will hear us, as the psalmist knew (Psalm 52. 9, 11.). In faith we can rely on his word that he will cleanse us. Some thoughts we find impossible to deal with, but there is nothing he cannot take captive, if we have the faith to expect him to do it We should also be prepared to do our part: refuse to allow these thoughts to have residence in our minds, rejecting them every time we realise their presence, and by calling on the Lord each and every time we are under attack. Finally, we need to ask the other troops to come to our defence. A soldier in war who is slow to ask for reinforcements when he needs them is a dead soldier. When they need it, we should pray for our fellow Christians; when we need their prayers we should be quick to ask for them. Christian's prayers for one another should be informed by the Spirit, but there are also those times when we need to give others some information about what they need to pray. All this might seem to be a lengthy process. But in practise, we are, or should be, or should be becoming, very quick to recognise every enemy thought. Often, thoughts of a particular kind will be a repeated, and are therefore an easily identifiable problem. We need to find the right scriptures through which to call on God to defeat the enemy. Over time, as we grow in spiritual awareness, and our union with God deepens, we shall recognise more thoughts and thought patterns as enemies, and we shall find God dealing with them, through our co-operation with his grace.
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Undesirable thoughts, god, paul, obedience, principles, enemy, spiritual awareness, prayer,
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