TLIC Family. Day 225. August 13: Take every thought captive.

THINK TOGETHER

Have you ever caught something (a firefly, a mouse, a runaway dog)? What does it take to catch something?

READ TOGETHER

It’s very easy to think about the wrong things isn’t it? We can think wrong thoughts about ourselves, about our family or friends, and even about God. Listen to how the Apostle Paul describes our thoughts here in 2 Corinthians 10:

2 Corinthians 10:3-5. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. ⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. ⁵ We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

Paul calls our thoughts “arguments” and “lofty opinions” that are at war against the “knowledge of God.”

Yikes.

That sounds really bad doesn’t it? And it is bad. What is Paul saying here? He’s saying that often we think that we can be good enough on our own to please God or get to heaven. This is what Paul calls “walking in the flesh,” or “waging war according to the flesh.” Do you remember what the flesh is? The flesh is that selfish part of you that thinks that you can be better than everyone else. The flesh likes to compare itself to other people. Like “I’m smarter than him.” Or, “I’m better in school than her.”

And as Christians sometimes we even compare ourselves to Jesus. We think that we can be like Jesus instead of remembering that Jesus is perfect and we are a million miles away from being perfect and we need Jesus to be our SAVIOR and not just our role model.

So what do we do?

Every time we find ourselves thinking that we can be good enough, or thinking that we are better than someone else, we need to “take that thought captive.” We need to destroy that thought with the good news of Jesus our savior. We need to capture those bad thoughts and change them to thoughts of Jesus and the cross so that we remember that we all need Jesus and Jesus loves us all, no matter what.

Because of Jesus we know that we need a savior and have a savior.

With Jesus we can capture our selfish thoughts and replace them with the good news of Jesus.

DO SOMETHING TOGETHER

Go outside and catch something like fireflies. Or play tag or freeze tag together. These activities illustrate taking something captive. What do you have to do to capture a firefly or another person in the game of tag? Talk about how we need to be able to catch ourselves thinking those thoughts that replace Jesus with ourselves.

PRAY TOGETHER

Jesus,

I need you every day to be my savior. Help me to capture my bad thoughts and replace them with trust in you alone.

Amen.

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