Taken Thoughts
Matthew 6:24-25 KJV(24) No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.(25) Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Really the only way we are defeated in the battle against our enemy is when we’re persuaded to take a thought side that is opposite of God’s. Every time a thought is ‘taken’ that is against the thought that God would inspire there is a choice made to take up the side of ignorance and certain failure as opposed to victory, excellence and fulfillment. Even when it could be put into the category of just using ‘wisdom’, until every thought is given to Him in trust and complete surrender, there is a presumption that His way and His thought won’t quite satisfy, fulfill, or just be enough.
The NBA basketball playoffs are on right now, and having grown up in Colorado I can’t help but pull for the Nuggets. They’re definitely up against it right now as they face the Lakers down 3-2 games. They have a player on their team, though, that has made an incredible difference in their chances. He’s a guy they just acquired this year from another team where he had been a part of taking that team all the way through the championship. He had actually played for so long on this other team that he seemed to be a part of its identity. The colors and the jersey of that team along with his number was an established association in basketball. To see him with Denver, having been taken by them in a trade, it certainly seemed a bit odd and out of place until he began to establish his identity there as well, leading them to their best chance at winning a championship. While the team had a pretty talented group of guys, it wasn’t until this leader was taken that they were able to rise to the winning level.
There is a team that wins every time. While the season may be a tough one, there is a certainty that when finals time comes around, not only will they be in it, but they will win it. It’s a team that is made up of thoughts, and only the thoughts that come from above are allowed to be a part of that team. What’s great about these thoughts, though, is that they can be ‘taken’ in a trade, where old failing thoughts and opinions are given up for the thoughts that never fail to produce victory. For the one that once had an identity of losing, where reaching the finals was just a fantasy and illusion, there is ever the possibility for an identity change. Rather than continuing to ‘take’ thoughts of doubt, fear, worry, and failure to the game, it is more than possible to take every thought and let it become captive to the obedience and leadership of the One who wins every time.
Once a new identity is established with those thoughts that are above, it is difficult to see how there could ever be a choice for one of those old loser thoughts. Denver now has a new winning identity with this new player they have taken, so there is a new winning identity just waiting for the right thoughts to be ‘taken’ over the old losing ones.
2 Corinthians 10:5 KJV(5) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
