DEVOTION – DAY 595

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 “Taking Captive Every Thought”

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have the divine power to demolish strongholds. 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.”

There is a spiritual battle that everyone faces daily. For Christians, the Bible teaches us that in order to defend ourselves in this daily struggle with the evil that is in this world, we must not use weapons that the world uses and pride, thinking we will be able to resist Satan’s lies and deception. For example, the Bible tells us to be cheerful givers and be generous in our giving. The world tells us, “Give only when we can afford to give, and to save for the rainy day.” The world tells us beware of scammers, tricksters and so on” And we ask “How do we know that what we give will actually end up helping the right people?” The world’s thinking undermines what the Bible teaches. It does so subtly and never tell us to reject God’s Word directly. It begins with sowing seeds of doubt in God’s Word and causes us to doubt what God says. That is the way Satan tempted Adam and Eve to sin. He still tempts us today by sowing seeds of doubt in God’s Word. By tempting us with what looks outwardly attractive but is in fact harmful for us because sin affects our relationship with God. That is why the above verses warn us to take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ (v5). We must be on guard against every attempt that the world causes us to doubt God’s Word. 

We know someone who was responsible for managing some church funds. It began with a thought. What if she were to take some of the funds, would anyone notice? She thought she would test it and she kept a small sum back from banking in the full funds. No one noticed the missing sum. Soon, she was tempted to take more. Eventually, she was caught and she lost her position and reputation. She had failed to keep her every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. When the thought first came to her to take some of the church funds, she should have held that thought captive and asked herself what the Bible says about theft and that would have caused her to flee from the temptation. 

Let us pray: Thank Lord for warning us against the sinful desires and temptations. Please help us to always take every thought and idea we have captive and to make it obedient to the Lord Jesus. We humbly pray in the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Questions

1. What are some ways the devil tries to tempt us?
2. When temptations and bad thoughts come to our minds, what are some steps we can take to overcome these temptations and bad thoughts?
3. What are some ways we can guard our minds and take captive every thought to be obedient to Christ?