TAKING THOUGHTS CAPTIVE

Here are 6 ways to take your thoughts captive:
Taking your thoughts captive simply means gaining control over what you think about. Here is a great article from crosswalk.com

1. “Accept responsibility for your thoughts. You have the ability to exercise control over your thoughts. God warned Cain to focus his mind on the right things, but Cain chose to think about the wrong things - anger and jealousy - which led to his murderous actions. Are you willing to admit that you can, with God's help, regain control of your thoughts - and think enabling thoughts instead of disabling ones?
   
   
   
2. Your mind - not just your behavior - must change. God calls us to change sinful behavior that does not honor Him. Instead of focusing on your outward behavior, work on disciplining your mind - from which the behaviors stem. Allow God to transform you by the renewing of your mind (Rom. 12:2).
   
   
   
3. Think through your problems rather than just reacting to them.”
   
   I will insert this: If we accept problems instead of falling we can have a great month.
   
   
   4. “Take your disabling thoughts captive through confession. Paul urges us to "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (Rom. 12:21). Confront your disabling thoughts. Turn them over to God and become who He sees you can be. It will take work to take your thoughts captive each time they pop into your mind. But it is possible with the help of the Holy Spirit.
   5. Choose to focus your thoughts on the right things. We are to think about those things that are "true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable" (Phil. 4:8). When we think about those things, God promises to give us His peace. What a contrast that is to the thoughts of millions of people today. Don't look to a movie, TV show, or how-to formula to accomplish this for you. It takes personal discipline and commitment.
   6. It is possible. It is not easy to retrain your thoughts or to respond in new Christ-like ways. Take heart: as God empowers you to focus your mind on the right things, it will become easier. You can develop a new frame of reference, based on what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy.
   

It is possible to live a life aware of our thoughts and take them captive! God gave us the Holy Spirit to empower us. Start following these steps today to gain power over your mind and thoughts.”

I say print out their article and read it every day for 2 weeks. Great stuff.

Pray: “Father, show me how to change the way I think.”

Think about only looking at things you “can” look at, as if God is watching (He is). Always be praying about running from what you can't look at.

Every time a wrong thought pops into your head pray: “Father, help me to take this thought captive. I praise you today. Please give me new thoughts.”

 

Use notes to remind you of what you should be thinking about. Have a list of 8 healthy things you should be thinking about. Maybe 4 things that are productive and 4 that are spiritual.

Think about:

1. Praying and going to war with negative emotions
   
   
2. A challenge you overcame
   
   
3. A goal you have achieved
   
   
4. How obedience will lead to God's blessing
   
   
5. How you can find your God-given purpose
   
   
6. How running from lust is smart. Then pray for help again
   
   
7. An accomplishment you can be proud of
   
   
8. Someone you have helped
   
   
9. Problems will pass. With Jesus life will go on
   
   
10. Someone who you would like to emulate (be more like)
    
    
11. What you believe to be most important in life
    
    
12. A character trait you would like to develop
    
    
13. How your life is different because of Jesus
    
    
14. A time you felt God was close to you
    
    
15. A piece of music that lifts your spirits
    
    
16. A Scripture you find meaningful
    
    
17. What it feels like to worship God
    
    
18. The fact the others went through similar circumstances, and are free now
    
    
19. The Bible says to praise the Lord
    
    
20. Consider repeating often: I will think in a positive way
    

Be aggressive with casting down sinful thoughts and replacing them with healthy thoughts.
Consider praying: "Father, show me how wrong thoughts poison my life."
Print out your own cheat sheet of new thoughts and look at your paper so often that it wears completely out. If you like this list, wear it out instead.
Think God's way - think right - find freedom.

 

This week I will be watching the Australian open tennis tournament. The temptation is about average for watching something like this (beautiful female tennis players).

I will focus on two things to stay “free” of lust this week. I will practice turning from lust consistently and often. The more we think about turning, the more we will practice it.

Second, I will focus on studying the fruits of the Spirit on the days that I watch. Today I am printing out the fruits of the spirit.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

This month I will be praying over each of the fruits of the Spirit. Reading each fruit then praying: “Father, fill me with Your love.” “Father, fill me with Your joy.” “Father, fill me with Your self-control etc.”

Praying over the fruits of the Spirit is wise because it allows the Spirit to fill you and help you.

There are always two parts to quitting. What you stop doing, and what you start doing. Plus, if what you start doing involves scripture... that is a real home run.

Last, consider printing out everything about taking thoughts captive. It will give you something to think about.

 

The first step to taking thoughts captive is to make it a goal to do it “All the time.” There are two aspects of this. The first is to fight daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly for clean thoughts. The second is to have clean things to think about at our fingertips. Consider having a written “Top 7 things to think about.” Then add and subtract from it to keep it fresh. If we don't have something good to replace the bad... the bad will win.

James 4:17- Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Second, always make one of your thoughts or prayers that you focus on... about purpose. Why does the verse above say that not doing good is a sin? Because God knows that if we don't do good we will “always” get into sin anyways. Consider praying twice daily:

“Father, help me to turn from lust, and help me to care about people and souls.”

Third, pick one verse about lust to focus on often. If you focus on a great verse for the next few days it will be “in you.” Once it is “in you” it will add power to your prayers.

If you consistently focus on scripture and prayer, at some point, satan will start to get frustrated with tempting you with lust.

 

What you feed your mind will determine the release of your full potential.

#1 Feed your mind prayers that will help you change. Every day pick a new or old prayer to pray that day.

#2 Feed your mind a memory verse about the topic you want to change:

Matthew 6:22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,[a] your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy,[b] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

Don't worry about reciting any verse word perfect. Worry about feeding your mind great things like scripture. Google “Verses lust” for new verse ideas.

#3 I gave 20 things to think about in the August 13th article. As always, you have my permission to print this out. As I reread that article I thought, I wrote it, but I still need to print it out.

#4 When you have a lustful thought think: #1 Prayer, #2 Bible verse, #3 Where is my list with ideas about what to think about?

Finally, if you develop the habit of feeding your mind good things... The temptation will go way down.