Taking Every Thought Captive
I pray for every woman (or man) standing for marriage restoration to understand how vitally important it is to take control of our thoughts! Because we ABSOLUTELY MUST take them “captive”, as 2 Corinthians 10:5 shows us, 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 first step is understanding and acknowledging that we are very literally involved in spiritual warfare and that our husbands (or wives) are not our enemies, as we see in Ephesians 6:12, which says For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. That process begins by following the instructions found in Romans 12:2, which tells us Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. And we KNOW we can trust God’s good, pleasing and perfect will, because Jeremiah 29:11 (AMP) promises For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.
We begin to understand how important our thoughts and what we REALLY feel in our hearts is to God when we read Isaiah 29:13, which says The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Then Jeremiah 17:5, says This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. And in Jeremiah 17:10 we see “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” So we see that our deeds and conduct are measured and judged by God based on the secret things we mistakenly believe are safely tucked away and hidden in our hearts and thoughts. No matter how hard we try, we can’t really hide what is in our hearts, because as Luke 6:45 tells us, i>The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. We all know only too well how difficult it is to feel or think something without it eventually coming out of our mouths, and as I often tell women standing for marriage restoration, when it comes to issues of bitterness and unforgiveness, you can be certain it WILL come out at the worst possible moment, and when you least expect it.
So in practical terms, we HAVE to take control of our thoughts because they LITERALLY determine our emotions and our emotions lead us to action, because there is a definite link between what we do and what we think. Paul gives us some very practical instructions about how to do that in Philippians 4:8, in which he says Finally, brothers, 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. Of course, the opposite of that is just as important…do NOT think or dwell on anything that is not true (contrary to the word of God), noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praise worthy! And, YES, I do know how difficult that is, which is why I advise women battling negativity, or thoughts that don’t glorify the Lord, to say a prayer every time negative thoughts about their husband comes to their mind! In addition to the AWESOME power the prayers release, the thoughts eventually stop coming to our minds, because the LAST thing Satan wants to do is remind us to pray for our husbands and our marriages! In addition, by focusing on the power and promises of God instead, we release the power of this awesome promise found in Isaiah 26:3, which says You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. When we keep our focus on the Lord, it’s not possible to feel anything but the awesome peace of God that passes all understanding, and many of the testimonies from men with restored marriages state that it was their wife’s unexpected and unexplainable peace that first drew them back to her.
Since taking EVERY thought captive and making it obedient to Christ (what the Bible teaches us), is such an important principle of marriage restoration, we all need to memorize and pray Psalm 19:14 often, which says May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. Don’t forget that our thoughts form the basis for our emotions, and out of our hearts, our mouths speak, and as Proverbs 18:21 tells us, The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. It is my most sincere prayer for everyone reading this to understand the importance of taking EVERY thought captive to make it obedient to Christ, and that our thoughts, hearts and tongues WILL bring forth God glorifying fruit, especially the restoration of our marriages!
This is the first time I’ve posted an entire article from Restoration Principles, which is in the private FAM Fellowship section of our website, but this is such an important principle, that I felt led to post it here for the benefit of everyone seeking the restoration of their marriages, in appreciation for your support of this ministry..