“We are destroying arguments and all arrogance raised against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 (NASB)
Every spiritual battle begins in the mind. How we think affects how we live our life and make our choices. Taking control of our thoughts can change our life and our eternity. If we think it, we will live it.
My mother was gifted in learning foreign languages, and she used to say, “If you think in a language, you will speak it.” When she married my father, who was from Greece, she asked him to teach her to speak Greek, but he refused, choosing to speak only English, as an American citizen. So my mother hired a tutor to teach her Greek. Between the tutor and some relatives to converse with, she learned to read, write and speak Greek fluently, without an accent, which totally amazed all of our Greek relatives. She always said that her secret to mastering fluent Greek, was to think in Greek.
It’s a principle that can also apply to living the Christian life. Maybe we need to think Christian, in order to live Christian. Our thought life could be the key to living according to the obedience and love of Christ.
Sincerity of thought produces sincerity of action. If my thoughts are contrary to the knowledge of God, it doesn’t help to just keep trying to act like a Christian. The scripture says to take every thought captive, by measuring it according to the standards of Christ.
I learned a lesson about this a few years ago when my friend was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and placed in hospice in a Nursing home.
While she was in hospice I tried to help her husband who had a heart condition and was living alone in their apartment. They had no children, so I used to visit my friend and then check on her husband every weekend. I also ran some errands for him and washed his dishes while I was there.
As weeks went by, he started asking for some particular delicacy or food treat, from places that were not nearby or in the neighborhood. I still did what he asked, but began to feel that he was taking advantage of me. I started feeling resentment towards him, as he kept asking me to go out of the way for some treat that he was craving.
I felt like a hypocrite, since I was literally going the extra mile for someone but thinking the worst thoughts about them. I was critical about how self absorbed he was, while his wife, my friend, was dying.
I finally took my feelings of resentment to God in prayer. He forgave me and changed my heart, reminding me that whatever we do for others, we are doing for Jesus, regardless of the kind of person we are doing it for.
With a totally new outlook, I felt renewed and refreshed, with the burden of guilt lifted from my conscience. I was planning to visit my friend’s husband with a new state of mind, and do for him, as if it were for Jesus. So that weekend, I arrived at his home, but no one answered the door, so I used my key to enter. I called out his name but there was no answer. Then I saw his lifeless body lying on the bathroom floor. He apparently died of a massive heart attack the previous day. It was an awful experience, but a sober reminder that we should never grow weary in doing good.
God knew he didn’t have long to live, and He also knew that I needed an attitude adjustment. Every spiritual battle begins in the mind, and we never know when an opportunity to show patience, mercy and kindness to someone, might be our last chance to do it. I was a slow learner, but the Holy Spirit taught me to surrender my thought life to God, in order to live in a more genuine way for Christ.
Without becoming overly scrupulous, we need to regularly take some thoughts captive, surrendering them to God. Only He can transform us from within, so that we don’t have to force ourselves to be what we aren’t. The Lord helps us to think right so we can live right.
Lord, thank you for being patient with us, while we learn to do your will with transformed hearts and renewed minds. Keep our thoughts aligned with you so that we can live as you want us to live. Amen
