Take Hold of Every Thought
We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Our Father in heaven, You are great and do marvelous deeds; You alone are God (Psalm 86:10). We cannot begin to grasp Your wonders and mysteries—Solomon with all his wisdom and learning reminds us: As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things (Ecclesiastes 11:5).
Maker of all things, even as we do not know the path of the wind and the creative wonders of the human body, we understand even less the marvels of the mind, and the intricacies of thought, and reason, and cognition. But we know that You have given us the ability to choose, and to regulate thought, and to govern the influences of the mind.
Your word emphasizes the importance of the mind in our physical and spiritual wellbeing, in the very issues of life (ASV): More than anything you guard, protect your mind, for life flows from it (Proverbs 4:23 - CEB). And You offer us the ability to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we can choose what is good, pleasing and perfect, instead of what is harmful or destructive to ourselves or to others (Romans 12:2).
You offer this transformation through the power of Your Spirit, because on our own— regardless of our best effort or strongest will—we cannot genuinely escape the inclinations of the flesh that we inherited in our human nature. You clearly show us the two options: The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:6).
Oh Father, help us to choose a mind filled with life and peace. Free us from fear, anxiety, worry, and defeat. Give us the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). Help us to take hold of every thought, to make it obedient to Christ.
Fill us with Your Spirit and all He brings. The apostle Paul told Timothy that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7 - NKJV). And he told the Galatian church that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Teach us to live in the renewing, transforming, power of the Spirit, with minds governed by all that is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8).
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