Choose

Posted by Randy Thompson on Jul 1, 2011 in Daily Bread | 1 comment

Every day we see on TV or read about the battles our service men and women are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. The consequences of this fighting are death, injury and other horrific things. Our service men and women are also victorious, I believe, because they are well trained and equipped and God is with them. We are also engaged in battle every day. Our battle is a spiritual battle. The battle is in our minds and the consequences show up in how we live our lives. God is with us in this battle and, through the weapons he gives us in his word, equips and trains us for victory.

One of the weapons God has given us for this battle is to take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). We make a choice to sin or not when we react to every day negative events, strains in relationships and temptations that occur in our lives. We give in to anger and sin, we give into temptation and sin and we give into selfishness and sin.

Most of the time when we give in to temptation to sin, the choice was made long before the actual sin occurred. A tempting thought from Satan occurred to us and we did not immediately reject the thought but allowed it to build a nest in our mind. We did not take the thought captive to make it obedient to Christ and, ultimately, the sin is committed. An alcoholic’s decision to stop at a bar or package store to drink was not made when he drove into the parking lot. The decision was made before he got into the car to drive.

Taking every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ will help prevent us from sinning by acting out in road rage, arguing with our spouse, gossiping, giving in to temptation, etc. God has given us a plan and his power to overcome our natural desire to meet our needs on our own, in a sinful way. In my own experience, when I choose to take a thought captive to make it obedient to Christ, it works every time.