“The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God…”
For as many years as I’ve read this scripture I’ve always thought it was a wonderful provision of the tools that we have to fight against the world and its powers. And it is. My biggest problem is that I thought the enemy was “out there” somewhere or “in” someone else. But I was wrong…really wrong. Read on.
“…bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.” (2 Corinthians 10:4-6)
Our warfare is in our own mind. If it weren’t, the scripture would not be constructed to tell us to bring every thought captive. We can only control our own minds; we can’t control someone else’s thoughts, so this scripture is written specifically to let us know that the warfare we are engaged in is in our own thought processes. We just erroneously think our enemy is someone else. But it’s always the enemy attacking our own mind.
Don’t get me wrong, we DO walk in authority and we CAN bring down strongholds with the power of the Word of God, but more often than not, we have to bring our own thoughts into submission to the Word and that means tearing down our own strongholds. How many times are you in “conversation” with someone and you hear yourself saying things you said years ago before you were saved? Before you had the mind of Christ? Before you had His authority to say His words?
C’mon now, admit it! I know you’ve said stuff!
Life and death are in the power of the tongue and the tongue is controlled by our thoughts. That’s what the apostle meant when he said to “fight the good fight”. He didn’t mean a fight against anyone else; just a fight against the thoughts in our own minds.
The workplace is a great place to bring your thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ!
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How right you are, Carol. Our own thoughts must be evaluated to see if they are of faith or of flesh. Sin patterns are so entangled in our deepest self. Only the Word of God can enable us to appreciate this. It seems fitting that our daily prayer should be, "Search me, oh God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (Psalm 139:23-34)
ReplyDeleteJust last Thursday I had to confess a horrible statement that I used to make frequently about how a "hit man" could solve one unending problem for me! Of course, I would never really consider such a solution, but for a regenerated person to use such a statement could not be pleasing to the Father. What a terrible contradiction of a Christian witness such words are. But, thanks to the Redeemer, Jesus Christ, even this offense is under the reconciling blood shed on that cross so long ago.
Romans 12 tells us that our bodies are to be made an offering and our minds are to be renewed. We should be warned by what happened to Eve when she trusted the deceiver, who brought her to question, and who even contradicted, the Word of her Creator.