Captives.

It’s snowing here! You will guess that I am excited. Because I love winter. I was thinking the other day and I am pretty sure that the seasons, and how I rank them in order or liking, goes something like this:
Spring.
Winter.
Fall.
Summer.
Not that you care, of course, but I thought you might be curious. So there it is.

Things can change pretty fast in life, sometimes so fast that you don’t know what hit you.

I was gone again this weekend and when I got into my car to start driving home it was like 60 degrees outside. And then the next time I got out of my car it was like 27 degrees. Now, mind you, I had covered a decent amount of miles, but it was all in the same state.

Wow. Fast. What a change.

But then there are things that change rather slowly, and you don’t notice any change until one day you realize that somewhere along the line you must have flipped a switch.

Those are called slippery slopes.

I saw this picture this summer when I was at that golf tournament. Pretty sure I said outloud, “No Kidding,” and then promptly snapped the picture.

But slippery slopes, they get you every time but I am convinced we usually have no idea we are on one.

Over the weekend I spent a lot of time thinking about this. Having had something brought to my attention, you know, one of those nasty, sinful things in my life, I couldn’t get it off my mind, and I wondered if there had been any red flags I could have seen along the way.

Was I just not paying attention?
Was it choices I made?
Was it choices somebody else made that affected me?

In my particular case, and I think probably the case in all particular slipping cases, it comes down to our choices. Even more so I think it comes down to our thoughts, because don’t all actions proceed from a thought?

As I was praying through said slope, the verse in II Corinthians kept coming to my head.

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up again the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (10:5)

Wow. I, unfortunately, cannot say that about myself.

Most days my mind is just running wild, taking me with it to who-knows-where. And I fear it’s all of those runnings that lead me down slippery slopes. It’s those thoughts I don’t think about. The un-thought-about thoughts are probably the ones that little by little argue with me about the truth of who God is in my life, who he has been, who he will be. Those thoughts rouse up all my fears. They are the ones who set themselves up against God’s plan. And those are the ones that send me sliding.

Wouldn’t you agree that slopes are entered upon because we have believed something contrary to the truth of God and how we fit into that?

We let the thought run wild that God doesn’t really have our life in his hands and in his plans, so we take matters into our own hands and we start worrying and we start mentally spirally out of control until, at last, we find ourselves in the bottom of some pit.

Or we somehow think that satisfaction can be found in something, someone, some whatever, outside of Chrst.
Or what if we continue down the vein with the thought that somehow we will end up alone? Don’t we then turn into either some kind of control freak or wet-noodle….and find ourselves at the bottom of some slope?

Reality brings any number of thoughts into our mind that set itself up against the knowledge of God. That we cannot stop.

But we can stop following them down whatever hill they are pulling us.

Take every thought captive.  Make it obedient to Christ.
I think the only way we can do this is by listening to another verse:
Pray without ceasing.

If, throughout the day, we are always talking to God, then those thoughts that come into our mind can be dealt with immediately. We can demolish those arguments.

How?
Well, let’s take for instance the fear that you will end up alone. Why don’t we literally tell it, outloud if necessary, the truth of Christ: “I will never be left. I will never be forsaken” (Hebrews 13:5).
Or what about the fear that your life isn’t going the way you thought it should? Tell yourself what God has told us, “His thoughts are not my thoughts. His ways are not my ways. His thoughts are higher than mine. They are better” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
We have to stop believing the lie…even if we feel like it’s true. We must not follow our feelings, they are fickle. We must lead them and correct them.

Maybe this is elementary to some of you, this lipping-off to your fears using scripture, but the older I get the more I see my need to do it. Every single day. When it comes to sin we have no time to play Mr. Nice Guy.

They always say Fight Fire with Fire, but I personally think that’s a little lame. The Bible says the Word of God does not return void and it goes out and accomplishes God’s purposes. Therefore, the power of God’s word considered, wouldn’t you say that confronting our silly, irrational, and not true fears with scripture is really more like fighting fire with a meteorite?

That’s more how I like it. This battle for our mind, this battle for less sin in our life is not one to be taken passively. Be aggressive with your mind, Wolfies. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. And whatever you do, don’t retreat.

Just reload.