This
morning we are looking at Paul's statement that the weapons of our
warfare are mighty, in that they enable the demolition of ideas
that war against the knowledge of God, and allow us to take every
thought captive unto obedience to Christ (2 Corinthians 6:4,5). In
terms of discipleship we need to apply this to our inner lives, then
to church, and finally to the destructive philosophies of the age.
This morning, we will be looking at our inner lives. We need to
realize the things we think about and fixate on, are powerful
influences in our lives, on our identity, on how we see ourselves
and then ultimately, on our attitudes and actions. Over against
this, as human beings we have this unique ability to think about what
we are thinking about. And what this means, is that we can with
His help, choose to take every thoughts captive, to subjugate them
and, bring under Christ's control (verse 5).
It sounds
simple, and it is! But simple and easy are not the same. We all
have both good and bad thought patterns which form neural pathways
in the brain. Neural pathways are shortcuts that when positive,
enable skill sets such a playing the piano, or reading. Negative
thought patterns also form neural pathways in the brain, and can
result in addictions and other destructive behaviour. Obsessive
thinking is in an of itself and addiction. Part of it not being
easy, is that a feature of our fallen nature, seems to be that bad
habits are easy to get into, and hard to get our of, while good
habits work the other way round. Negative thought patterns are
strongholds of the mind, but the good news, is that He has provided
weapons to defeat them (verse 4). Addictive negative thought
patterns can be dealt with, as with all addictions, in
twelve-step programs whose principles are in fact Biblically based.
Secular versions of this scratch the surface of the resources
(weapons for the battle) that are available when our “higher power”
is Christ (see “The principals, promises and power trinity” from
January). There are advantages and disadvantages to every program,
but what I want to mention here, is the fellowship of inward
journey that is available in twelve-step programs. The Lord,
however, has raised up many inner healing ministries, and we need
to tap into those that meets our needs.
There
were several blogs in July about taking our individual thoughts
captive, and I won't repeat those thoughts here. But rather I want to
mention some helpful tools (weapons) that overlap with traditional
discipleship models. In particular, when we continue in His Word
obeying and living out His teachings, then we will know the Truth and
the Truth will set us free (John 8:31, 32). Since Jesus is Truth
incarnate (John 14:6), we will know both His Word, and know Him in
relationship. And then, in line with the first commandment , when
we present our bodies as living sacrifices, we'll be in process of
being transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1,2). I
can't resist quoting Einstein again “We cannot solve our
problems with the same level of thinking that got us into them. ”
So yes, living sacrifices, half measures profited us nothing!
Father, please teach us
how to take every thought captive, especially when we find ourselves
falling into old thought patterns. We are practicing, practice makes
perfect, and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
We thank You in His Name Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment