Your Thoughts Run Your Life

To listen to our vocabulary you'd think we are the victims of our thoughts. "Don't talk to me," we say. "I'm in a bad mood." As if a mood were a place to which we were assigned rather than an emotion we permit.
Or we say, "Don't mess with her. She has a bad disposition." Is a disposition something we "have"? Like a cold or the flu? Are we the victims of the emotional bacteria of the season? Or do we have a choice?
Paul says we do: "We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Do you hear some battlefield jargon in that passage-"capture every thought," "make it give up" and "obey Christ"? You get the impression that we are soldiers and the thoughts are the enemies. Our assignment is to protect the boat and refuse entrance to trashy thoughts. The minute they appear on the dock we go into action. "This heart belongs to God," we declare, "and you aren't getting on board until you change your allegiance."
Selfishness, step back! Envy, get lost! Find another boat, Anger! You aren't allowed on this ship. Capturing thoughts is serious business.
It was for Jesus. Remember the thoughts that came his way courtesy of the mouth of Peter? Jesus had just prophesied his death, burial, and resurrection, but Peter couldn't bear the thought of it. "Peter took Jesus aside and told him not to talk like that....Jesus said to Peter, 'Go away from me Satan! You are not helping me! You don't care about the things of God, but only about the things people think are important' " (Matthew 16:22,23).
See the decisiveness of Jesus? A trashy thought comes his way. He is tempted to entertain it. A cross-less life would be nice. But what does he do? He stands at the gangplank of the dock and says, "Get away from me." As if to say, "You are not allowed to enter my mind." 

 What if you did that? What if you took every thought captive? What if you refused to let any trash enter your mind? What if you took the counsel of Solomon: "Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life" (Proverbs 4:23). (From A Love Worth Giving by Max Lucado)