About Those Thoughts I've Struggled With

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).