For a recent Saturday morning men’s breakfast staged by Sandhills Assembly of God (Southern Pines, N.C.), I met with five other men at 8:30 a.m. at Mac’s restaurant in Aberdeen, N.C.
Juan
Sanchez, our men’s ministry leader and a retired Special Forces soldier, sat at
our 6-man table and talked about “bringing every thought into captivity to the
obedience of Christ.” He
spoke about this verse:
“For 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, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2
Corinthians 10:4-5 NKJV).
Mentally
picturing that “bringing every thought into captivity” concept, I recently
envisioned an armed man (me) in a uniform. That man put handcuffs on a
rebellious fellow (who represented a “thought”).
The
armed man then led the rebel to a prison. Inside that prison, men peered
through iron bars and jeered at the armed man. He opened the locked door of the
prison cell, took the cuffs off the rebel, and forced that sneering fellow
inside with men (thoughts) who were similar in nature.
Juan
“spoke to me" on that Saturday morning. I realized, again, that my thoughts often
defeat me.
Someone
said that we have the ability to think ten times faster than we can speak. If I
don’t control my thoughts, they may “run away with me.”
In
musing about thoughts “running away with me,” I picture a strong-willed horse “with
the bit in his mouth,” as the old folks used to say. That saying refers to the “bit,” the “metal mouthpiece
of a bridle whereby a rider
controls a horse,”
according to Internet sources.
There is a place
behind a horse’s teeth where no molars grow on his gums. A horse can jostle the
bit and get it out of that area behind his teeth. Once he has the bit firmly
between his teeth, the horse won’t be harmed when his rider pulls back on the
reins. The rider then can’t control the horse by puling on the bit and hurting
the tender flesh behind the horse’s teeth.
When
a horse has “the bit in his mouth, he can run where he wills, and the rider has
to hang on for the ride, or get off.
“Taking
the bit between his teeth” means “to take control” or “to throw off restraints and proceed on a headlong course,” according to “Wikipedia.”
As Juan spoke about “binging
thoughts into captivity,” I reflected on my tendency to let a degenerative
thought “get the bit between its teeth.”
Too much of my
thinking runs toward the ditch of self-defeat. Some of my musings spring from
my melancholy tendencies. Many of my thoughts float (or surge) up from my
fallen nature. We all have that problem.
Though I say I desire
to “have the mind of Christ,” I sometimes allow fallen-nature thoughts to rest
in my head.
Someone said, “You can’t
help it if a bird flies over your head, but you can help it if he builds a nest
in your hair.”
Thoughts: They come to
our minds.
Some thoughts we experience
are from God. Some are from “good” sources. Many are just everyday thoughts.
But some thoughts come from the dark side. And others may even be “satanic.”
We must stop fallen-nature
thoughts from building nests in our hair.
Controlling our
thoughts is perhaps ultimately impossible to do without Christ’s help. Can we,
by sheer willpower, “bring thoughts into captivity” without the help of Christ?
Captured thoughts are not
to be left in what we might think is “limbo.” Thoughts won’t stay captive by
themselves. Nature abhors a vacuum, someone noted. Something will fill your
mind. Thoughts are to be brought “to the obedience of Christ.” When Christ
becomes the focus of our lives, his thoughts and words will direct us, and then
we won’t fall prey to our fallen-nature thoughts.
Oswald Chambers says, “Your
mind is the greatest gift God has given you, and it ought to be devoted
entirely to Him. You should seek to be bringing every thought into captivity to
the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
