I was rereading over this devotional shared with me and I thought how true it is. We are told to take captive our thoughts, I was thinking about how many times the enemy will use a single thought to distract me and cause me to take my eyes off of Jesus. Just the other day I woke up feeling really good and just full of joy from the Lord. I had spent time in prayer and thanking Him for all His care.
Later that morning I had to run to the grocery store for a few items and the lady at the check out asked me if I was sick and tired of all the dreary cold weather we have been having. I told her that I hadn't really thought about it that much. She said well I have and I am just so tired of it, makes one so depressed. I smiled and told her that I hoped she would have a good day in spite of all the gray skies outside. As I was leaving the store something happened, I was still feeling really good but then as I walked to the car a cold wind rushed out of no where at me and I shivered. I looked up at the sky and there were dark, gray, clouds looming all around. The sun was completely covered and I began to think about what the checker had said about how depressing it was day after day to see these same dark cloudy skies, cold winds, and freezing temperatures. I allowed my mind to count back over how many days it had been since the sun had been out and how everything just seemed so dark, depressing and even hopeless. I began thinking about how tired I was feeling, and how I had no energy but still so many chores that I had to do when I got home. I gave a heavy sigh and began grumbling in my spirit about all the cold, windy, dreary days we had been having and wondering when the nice weather would come. The more time I allowed self to spend on that one little thought instead of meditating on the things of the Lord, the worse I felt. By the time I got home I felt so depressed, so sad, and dissatisfied with my whole life. I spent the rest of the after noon trying to figure out what had happened to the joy I had been experiencing all morning in the Lord. Then I realized that I had not taken captive my thoughts, I had allowed them to have free reign and in doing so my eyes were taken off Jesus and placed firmly on self. I had allowed the enemy and self to rob me of the joy and peace the Lord and given me just hours earlier.
Anyway this little devotional has been a really good reminder to me and I hope it will be a blessing for some here to:)
2 Corinthians 10:5
God Bless
maryjane
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Guard Your Minds
12/11/1999
An excerpt... Have any of you ever had a thought of bitterness come into your mind? How about a thought of jealousy? How about a thought of anger? How about a thought of lust? How about a thought of pride? These are thoughts that present themselves before you. Its as if a little man has walked up to your mind and said, I want to introduce you to a thought. We decide whether to bring that thought in and think about that thought or to reject it and say, No! Go away! This is taking every thought captive. Have you ever had a thought of depression or self-hatred? You can think to yourself, I am a depressed person; I hate myself. But thats not a mind controlled by the Spirit. We must take every thought captive. When that little man walks up and presents his idea to our brain, if it is not a pure and lovely and noble and praiseworthy thought, we MUST reject that thought! God said, I want your mind! I want you to love Me with all of your mind. You will permit no thoughts in your minds that are not My thoughts. You will be transfigured and transformed by the renewing of your mind. We permit only pure and noble and praiseworthy thoughts into our brain. We cast down every other imagination. If we will do that, we will be transformed. If we replace these kinds of thoughts with the thoughts of the Words of God, we will be transformed. Hope it is some good seed...
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