Every Thought...

A friend of mine recently sent me the link to a video by the skit guys. It was funny. I enjoyed watching it.

It was pretty powerful. I may or may not have cried a little bit. But I’m not really meaning to come on here and talk about how much I like/dislike the skit guys. (I really haven’t watched enough of their videos to make an opinion like that...)

At the end of the video, this one guy said with gravity, “You are God’s original masterpiece.” 

At that moment something  frightening happened in my head. The truth that had just been pumped through my ear buds flipped around into a lie. Because what happened was I instantly thought, “Haha. No way. More like a reused doodle.”  

I doodle in class. But I’m not really a good artist, (I can draw a palm tree… does that count?) and really, that’s the only time I draw anything. So in my head, I went from being a masterpiece to being one of the stick figures or palm trees that I so eloquently draw.

And although I hate to say this, I fell for the lie. I didn’t fight it I just… took it and was like, “Haha… yup. That’s me.”  Then I just went along with my life… I hate to say that. But it happened.

Wanna guess how the next 24 hours where? If you guessed that I drank probably nine million cups of coffee- but was still tired, depressed and an all around general grouch… Then you get a gold star! Because that was me.

It seems like every one of my thoughts was negative and I felt numb. I don’t know how many times that day I joked about being stupid (Eg: “Not smart enough to unlock a door.”)  Or clumsy (Eg: “Wow… tripping over air again…” I was wearing a long skirt… which really ups the gracefulness factor.) And just a lot of other little things. 

I lived that day cold. If I put on a sweater, it was too hot so… I guess it sounded brilliant to just stay cold.

It took until later that day when I was reading my Bible (another friend had pointed out something in Hebrews so I was reading that over) when I read this:

“These two things cannot change: God cannot lie when he makes a promise, and he cannot lie when he makes an oath. These things encourage us who came to God for safety. They give us strength to hold on to the hope we have been given.  We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, sure and strong…”

And I know this sounds crazy, but I started to remember and to think.

I remembered the times in the bible where God calls us-his people-his beloved, his peculiar treasures, his handiwork, his daughter and his masterpiece.

I remembered that I am free and that God is my strong anchor when I am weak.

I remembered that he is forever unchanging and sovereign.

(And I might have cried… but I do that a lot so that shouldn’t be that big of a surprise.)

This whole adventure made me realize something that I do way more often than what is good for me. I let my thoughts roam wild. And when a crazy, untrue thought comes up, I don’t always immediately counter it with truth.

I just… accept it.

But that is not right! 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 tells us to “capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ.”

Every. Thought. Captive.

That is hard. To be honest, I am a lot more comfortable talking about being free. About talking about freedom from slavery, not necessarily about being captive to something.

But so often we are captive to our thoughts. We let our thoughts destroy us and who God has made us to be. 

If you believe a lie for so long, you start believing that it’s the truth. That doesn’t mean that it’s actually true, it just means that you believe that it is.

We start anchoring our lives to a lie, which drowns you.

But my friends, when you begin to anchor your hope in Jesus, it keeps you afloat. The hope you can find in God is far superior to anything that is man made or of the world. It is our strong tower and the source of the most amazing love that ever existed.  He loved you so much that he sent his only son to die for you.

The thoughts that you think are a choice, and when we make the choice to let our thoughts be a weapon against ourselves, it's not honoring to the freedom God gives us throught his Son. 

And I wonder, if we where to take every thought captive, if perhaps we could help lead other people to the hope and peace of the gospel? Would we be able to help lead people to the anchor that holds people up? Would we learn to be still and know that God is in charge of everything? Would we learn to find rest in him?

-Rachel Joy