Breaking free, living in true FREEDOM found in Christ is what I desire and if you do too, I encourage you to keep reading. What if I told you that taking captive your thoughts to make them obedient to Christ, was not as hard as it sounds? Yes, taking every thought might seem overwhelming, but what if I told you that you can break free from the lies you believe each day. Now I’m not saying it’s easy, it takes time and a lot of patience with yourself. It also more importantly, takes a lot of prayer and dedication to following God’s will for our lives, not our own desires and hopes of what could be. And it takes intentional time in the Word, because the more you fill your mind with God’s truths, the less likely you will be to believe the enemy’s lies.
Take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5
You might be thinking, “Oh, that’s a great verse. But I can’t change the way I think. I have always been like this.” —I get it. I thought that for a very long time too. I thought I was just more pessimistic by nature. BUT, the good news my friends, is that you absolutely can change your thought patterns. Because the way you think shapes your life, your actions and decisions. And the scary thing is, the enemy knows that and wants to keep you in a negative mindset because his goal is to keep your mind off of God. Changing your thought patterns isn’t easy, and it will take time but you CAN take captive all your thoughts and make them obedient to Christ. Perhaps you find yourself crippled by fear and anxiety. Your mind goes a mile a minute thinking of every “what if” situation that could arise in each day. Or maybe you’ve bought into the lie that you aren’t enough. Whether that be; strong enough, pretty enough, thin enough, or smart enough. The answer is the same. With Christ you are 100% enough.
So how do we take captive our thoughts? –Let’s get into that now.
First we must acknowledge our negative thoughts are from the enemy meant to break us down and tear us away from God. That is his main goal. So realizing this will help when those thoughts creep in. Acknowledge them as lies and then kick them to the curb! Because when we are aware that these thoughts we are letting dictate our daily decisions are lies from the enemy, it makes it a lot easier to say, not today Satan! Think about a subject that you know a lot about. –Now if I started telling you “facts” about a subject that you knew weren’t true, because they didn’t line up with the research you’ve done on the subject, you wouldn’t believe me, right? So then why are you going to let yourself believe something that you know is a lie?! — If you’re thinking, well how do I know it’s a lie? Truth is, it’s actually pretty simple to know what thoughts are lies from the enemy. Anything that goes against God and His word are from the enemy. God is NEVER going to steer you in the direction of fear or anxiety.
The enemy is tricky and can sneak his little lies into our heads without us even realizing. Something will pop into our head and make us feel weak, unworthy or unloved. We won’t at the time realize it, but our actions will then reflect the way we are feeling and all of a sudden it’s a downward spiral into fear and negativity. Putting us exactly where the enemy wants us to be. Feeling far from God. Away from the truth. BUT the good news is, when we start taking our thoughts captive and making them obedient to Christ, then we are turning our worry into worship. Our fear into praise. Our sadness into joy.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8
Challenge time!
I want you to visualize yourself physically taking the thoughts of fear, negativity or anxiety into your hands and throwing them away. Every time a thought pops into your head that isn’t from God, I want you to do this and see how you feel at the end of the day. Spoiler alert. You will feel AMAZING. You will feel strong and worthy and loved by God when your thoughts are filled with His truths and promises and not those ugly lies that try to sneak in! Get into the Bible daily. Fill your mind and heart with God’s truths so that you can stand strong against the enemy’s lies! Let me know how this goes for you. I’m rooting for you all to find FREEDOM in Christ!
xo, Elizabeth