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Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
2 Corinthians 10:5
It has been said, “Every spiritual battle is won or lost at the threshold of the mind.”
Thoughts turn into imaginations, and imaginations can become strongholds. The moment a thought comes into our mind, we have to deal with it. If we entertain a thought we soon speak it and then find ourselves acting on it.
Once we start entertaining a thought we start to imagine scenarios and conversations and we have a movie projector playing a scene in our head. We thought someone didn't treat us properly and so the scene begins and after many hours of playing and replaying we feel differenly about this person and then we treat them differently and a relationship is lost. There are many titles to choose from, Offense, Hurt, Anger, Envy, Adultery, Murder... We start to feel and believe these imaginations.
Where do thoughts come from? In Matthew 7:20-23 Jesus says that it is out of a person's heart that evil thoughts come. Greed, envy, murder, slander, ect.
This is a part of our old nature, the sin nature we inherited from Adam. But Praise God, His word says in Romans 6:6-7- For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
God has always provided a way for us to live Holy and pleasing to Him but we have to discipline ourselves to do it.
It’s no coincidence that discipline and disciple have the same root. When we accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Saviour we are to become His disciples. A disciple is a follower of Christ and to have discipline means to possess the self-control needed to obey Him. This is something to be practiced daily.
Elisabeth Elliot wrote, “The difficulty is to keep a tight reign on our emotions. They may remain, but it is not they who are to rule the action. They have no authority. A life lived in God is not lived on the plane of the feelings, but of the will.”
I want to surrender my will to God's will. I don't want to entertain thoughts that are not from God because they will be a hinderance to building His kingdom. So whenever vain imaginations come my way I start singing- "It was just my imagination once again, running away with me."