Taking every thought captive for life and peace

How are your thoughts running these days? I was talking with a precious younger sister in Christ who’s suffering with much illness and loss. On top of it all, she was running the tape of a recent conversation over and over in her thoughts. A few critical comments from someone had unknowingly become hurts and wounds that fueled worries, quickly spiraling into “woe is me” thoughts.

Oh, how I could empathize, for it’s common to us as we suffer. It’s a common battle experience. 

What harm and destruction of our enemy who wants nothing more than various tapes of pain to run continuously in our thoughts. But our great God and Father understands…for He gives us exactly what we need!

Setting our minds

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Pet. 5:8 ESV).

But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one (2 Thess. 3:3 ESV). 

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace (Rom. 8:6 ESV).

God has given us the answer—it’s “setting” our minds! The Holy Spirit now indwells us, the Spirit of Christ! We battle with “the strength of HIS might” (Eph. 6:10, emphasis added), standing firm with gospel hope as those who have been given the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16).

So we battle just as Jesus did when the devil tempted him, continually replacing lies with His Word, our offensive weapon (Eph. 6:13-17). Jesus did so perfectly, without a trace of sin! What a beautiful means of God’s grace to us. What a gift to us when we feel so weak in the battles of suffering. What a gift to give us life and peace in taking every thought captive!

Thy word, almighty Lord,
Where’er it enters in,
Is sharper than a two-edged sword,
To slay the man of sin.

(“The Word of God, Quick and Powerful,” Montgomery, J., p. d.)

Taking every thought captive

Over many years of suffering, when I realize I’m re-running tapes in my head, God has powerfully offered some practical tools, to free me and help me walk as He desires for us as His beloved.

• Write them all down into a prayer…every awful thought, every lament and complaint about how hard this suffering feels, everything that’s eating me up inside. Every ugly wounding I’m replaying or ugly thing I saw or experienced or did. Tell Jesus. He already knows.

• Then, have a little ceremony. Burn the paper, rip it up, shred it to bits. Forgive as He has forgiven us, as far as the east is from the west, to the bottom of the ocean (Ps. 103:12; Micah 7:19).

• Remember what is true according to God’s Word. Replace the ugly with truth. Write it down! Repeat as needed. My sweet sister tried it and said He helped her too!

Truth replacement in our thoughts

Let’s both take up God’s Word, as He personalizes Scriptures for our thoughts…as He repairs our hearts, the wounded emotions, the battles with pain, anxiety, depression, the “woe is me” moments that sit on replay as we suffer.

It takes effort to maintain a Biblical perspective in earthly suffering, but it’s His gift of grace to help us!

We can ask Him to give us His personal daily manna of Scripture, and read, listen, study, and meditate on it! I’ve found that memes and pleasant little devotional stories aren’t enough as we suffer. Reading Christian books and listening to sermons aren’t the same either. But, as we prioritize time with God in His living and active Word, He rewires our minds and literally changes our thinking! He helps us to respond in His way, filling us up to the brim of overflowing with life and peace, by His love and grace. He promises to do so!

Taking every thought captive for life and peace!

Let’s hear the words of our Savior, praying for His disciples and us as we capture lies in our heads by replacing them with God’s true Word! What is the beautiful result?!

These things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them (Jn. 17:13, 15, 17, 26 ESV).

Thy word is power and life;
It bids confusion cease,
And changes envy, hatred, strife,
To love, and joy, and peace.

Material adapted from Singing the Gospel to Job: Finding Hope in Suffering, Lauri A. Hogle, © 2022

Resources to help us both take every thought captive

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! (Ps. 139:23 ESV).

Then let our hearts obey
The gospel’s glorious sound;
And all its fruits, from day to day,
Be in us and abound.

Another way our gracious God helps us renew our minds, replacing destructive thoughts with truths of His Word…

is to SING God’s Word! 

We easily memorize it in this way, and the Holy Spirit wonderfully pops the Scriptures into our minds as He knows we need them. It’s an amazing gift to us as we suffer, especially if we find reading the Bible challenging due to physical limitations.

So, this week’s playlist gift is filled with Scripture to help us battle as we sing. It’s filled with promises and truths from God’s Word for “truth replacement,” so we can take every thought captive for life and peace, to obey Christ as we both suffer.

The two Bible study prayer journal resources below are jam-packed with Scripture for this reason.

AND this week, I’ve created a “Truth Replacement” Bible prayer journaling gift for my suffering sisters in Christ to use over the next five weeks! It’s uploaded to the private resource library for our dear subscribers to Singing Christ’s Hope.

Praying any of these resources might help you as we seek our loving God’s life, joy, and peace in our trials.