SpringCleaning! What’re Ya Thinkin’? March 7
SpringCleaning!
March 7, 2021
What’re Ya Thinkin’?
2 Corinthians 10:4-5, ‘The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (NIV).’
Today we are going to do some SpringCleaning in our minds and clean up our thoughts. Similarly, our thoughts might have taken over as much of our ‘Home’ as our past had. We spend a lot of time dwelling in our minds. Remember when you were getting to know that special someone in your life and you asked each other frequently, ‘What are you thinking about?’ Or how many times during your day does someone ask you thoughtfully, ‘What’s on your mind?’ or ‘Penny for your thoughts?’ (You want to sometimes reply, ‘A penny?! Are you kidding? Those are million-dollar thoughts running around in there!’)
What about, ‘If only I could read your mind!’ Uh, nope, not today! The Lord God made man in His image, and in His Word, we are told we can know the mind of Christ and we also can know the heart of the Father, but what if God had made humanity that transparent? That our thoughts could be seen by others. I don’t know about you but there are times when I wouldn’t want anyone reading my mind. It might read like a trashy novel or a conspiracy theory, or even on some days, it would detail a ransom note or hostage threat; maybe even a murder plot or suicide letter.
But we are reminded that we can and should take captive our thoughts. In fact, in all likelihood, if we do not restrain our thoughts, our enemy will use our thoughts, which are running rampant like a wild animal, to hold us hostage.
What does that mean practically? We are prisoner to anything or one we give the keys of our lives, heart or mind to. We are dominated by, enslaved to, kept in the confinement of whatever has captivated us. However, we have the power to take those very actions over our thoughts. We can confine them, cage them, restrict them, take them captive in order to make our thoughts—that which influences our choices, preferences, decisions, actions, attentions, hopes, dreams, all of it—obedient to Christ and what is good, lovely, pure, wholesome, godly. We do so that we might not be incarcerated by and subjugated to what our thoughts cause us to act upon. In other words, we chain them so they don’t tether us to something from which we cannot get free.
How do we do this? We lasso them, we reign them in. In fact, just today I had this fleeting thought. Perfect example. I was watching so many families out walking with one another, taking a stroll in the nice weather, playing at the park, pushing strollers, walking dogs. I thought momentarily, ‘I’m so alone and sad. I used to take grambabies to the park to play. I used to…’ Almost immediately came the reply, ‘Yeah, and I have been so good and faithful to you. While this might hurt and not be what you envisioned, I am here with you today and you are loved unconditionally and not alone. And I restore what has been broken and stolen because I AM.’ See, previously, when I was not walking with the Lord, when I was only obedient to chasing anything I wanted when I wanted, the thought of being so alone and left out would have fed on my jaundiced imagination, gobbling up all the negativity and unhealthy expectations and grown into obesity. He is teaching me to be captivated by Him. I now hear His whisper instead of my cry, and even His whisper can drown out the bleakness of my thoughts. If I can snare my concerns and call them to obedience then so can you. But it will only happen if you make Him the Lord of your life and the Keeper of your keys.
Come with me in March and let’s clean house!
If you are anything like me, you have kept some things around far too long and now they got to go! And with the Lord’s help, they can!
