Every Thought Captive (2 Corinthians 10:5)

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
– 2 Corinthians 10:5

Whoa, what a phrase! We take every thought captive to obey Christ, and this is right after in verses three and four of this chapter. Paul is talking about how we are in spiritual battle in our lives at every moment. That there is an adversary who wants to pull us away from God, who wants to destroy us in every way, who wants to deceive us, who wants to discourage us. And then we get to verse five. We see this phrase about taking your thoughts captive to obey Christ. And this is the truth we see all over scripture. That spiritual battle begins in your mind. Ephesians 4 talks about being darkened in our own understanding and the futility of our minds, and needing truth from Jesus to transform our minds.

Romans 12 says the same thing. When you think about the first sin that ever entered the world, temptation started not just with eating a piece of fruit. It was with a man and a woman, believing that they knew better in their minds what was good for them than God did. I think about Matthew 6, when Jesus says, “Don’t be anxious.” How do you not be anxious? Jesus says, “Look at the birds. Think about the birds God feeds provides for them. You’re more valuable than them.” Philippians 4 says the same thing, “Don’t be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be known to God.” His peace will transform, guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, and then fix your mind on what’s honorable, just pure, lovely, commendable, excellent. Think about those things.

And it’s no surprise then when we look at the spiritual armor in Ephesians 6, the belt of truth is right at the top. Think about what is true. So I just want to ask you today, what lies are you tempted right now to believe about yourself? What lies are you tempted to believe about your circumstances? What lies are you tempted to believe about others? What lies are you tempted to believe about God? I want to encourage you to be aware of the lies you’re tempted to believe and to be intentional, to take every thought captive, to obey Christ. Whenever you think something discern, is that coming from God? Is that true according to his word? Because if it’s not coming from God, it’s not true. So, where is it coming from? We have to be able to discern the lies that you and I are tempted every day to believe and to fight a spiritual battle with truth.

Oh God, help us, we pray amidst the spiritual battle raging in our minds all day long, to fill our minds with that which is true, to focus on that which is true. God, we pray for your protection from the adversary’s attempts to deceive us, to discourage us, to destroy us with lies about who you are, about who we are, about who others are, about the circumstances we’re walking through. God, we pray you help us to take every thought captive to obey you. We pray that your Spirit, your word, would guide our every single thought, and you would keep us from thinking about that which is not true. And God, we pray that you’d help us to encourage others with truth today. And our conversations help us to speak truth into others’ lives, to speak words that bring life to others, and the spiritual battle that’s going on in their lives.

A Prayer for the Tungur People

God, we pray that you help us to speak the gospel clearly and boldly to people around us. God, we pray for the spread of the truth of Jesus among all the nations. We pray for the Tungur people of Sudan, for 282,000 Sudanese Tungur. Please, oh God, cause the truth of Jesus to spread to them that they might experience eternal life through truth, freedom. You’ll know the truth. The truth will set you free. God, we pray that the Tungur would be set free by the truth of who you are and who they are and how much you love them and how you’ve designed them for eternal life with you and made that possible through Jesus. We pray for the spread of truth to the ends of the earth in Jesus, and we pray you would help us to soak in that truth in our lives all day long today, and in this to experience victory and spiritual battle all day long as we take every thought captive to obey Christ. In His name, we pray according to 2 Corinthians 10:5. Amen.