There is something that has been on my heart a lot lately, and it seems to keep popping up everywhere.
“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” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
The part that keeps coming up is the idea of taking every thought captive to Christ, and asking Him what He thinks about it. This applies to common, day-to-day situations: work, relationships, sports, watching certain shows, listening to music and everyday conversation. It’s easy to let our mind wander to places that we don’t want it to, and it can lead us to believe lies.
For example, the situations I mentioned can cause us to wonder about an idea or an action that we should not be flirting with. My friend always use to tell me that when we entertain a negative or sinful idea, those thoughts usually manifest themselves into action. Mostly, just because we are thinking about it a lot. The more we think about it, the more time we give ourselves to justify it’s okay.
So, how do we apply this to our day-to-day lives? Well, the way to lessen our negative or sinful thoughts is to, first, take it captive. What does that mean?
To captivate means to confine or imprison. In other words, to restrict the area or volume of the thought. We need to restrict those thoughts that we deeply know we should not be entertaining, keep them as they are, and bring them straight to Christ.
Now, how do we make our thoughts obedient to Christ? Romans 8:5 say, “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.”
If our essence and being is desiring to live in obedience to Christ, then we need to be in His word, in prayer, and meditating on His truth. With consistency in those areas, it will bring our heart and mind into alignment with Christ. When thoughts come that you know are not good and pleasing to the Lord, it is vitally important that we remember Christ has overcome the world (John 16:33). Therefore, we do not need to fret or entertain the thoughts that consume this world, because He lives in us. He gives us the power to overcome, thanks to His work on the cross.
-Meggie Reitz
Meggie Reitz played NCAA Division I Softball for the University of Montana from 2012-2016. In July 2017, she was hired as the assistant softball coach at Bemidji State University in Bemidji, MN.