Take every thought captive

2 Corinthians 10:5 says, "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."  The Apostle Paul admonished the Christians at Corinth in his letter to them.  These are words that I desperately want to live by, but I often find myself losing the battle in my own mind. 

My mind is often filled with negative thoughts about myself.  Sometimes the thoughts come from words or actions of people who matter to my heart, but sometimes the thoughts come "from nowhere".  More often than not, the thoughts that I need to take captive come from my enemy, the devil, and they are fueled by things I see and hear.  The longer I think about something, the bigger it becomes in my head.  It would be so much easier to take a fleeting thought captive than one that has been growing in my mind.  If only I could be disciplined enough to do it!

The question is this, "How do we take every thought captive?"  You can't take a thought captive if you don't know it's there.  I try to be aware of how I am thinking and feeling, but that doesn't mean I always catch things right away or that I have easily won the battle.  I start by letting go and asking God to take the negative ideas in my head.  Sometimes, it takes more prayer than that for me to let go.  If I've been feeding negative thoughts, I've gotten used to them and sometimes even attached to them, and I don't really want to let go of them.  Sometimes, I have to choose forgiveness and release forgiveness.  Then, I have to replace the lie with the truth so there is no room for deceptive thoughts to come back and I can fight against it.  More and more, I find myself looking in my Bible...it's filled with truth that will set us free!  Free people are not in bondage to their thoughts...they can take their thoughts captive and continue to be free!