Changed Not Distracted

It is a peculiar thing, just how sticky words can be.

At times I can be walking through my day, and something ugly that was said to me comes rushing back from my memory. I get this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. It is a terrible surprise; and it is hard to know what to do in those moments.

I used to use the method of thought distraction. Whenever a thought of failure or hurt came to mind, I would distract myself by doing something else. I would turn on some music, watch a movie, play a video game, or just go do something else. I didn't like the way it made me feel, so I would drown it out, and eventually redirect my focus elsewhere.

This tactic worked for a while, sort of.

One day, I realized I was distracting myself full time. The thoughts that I wanted to avoid had pilled up so high, they had consumed me. I was having to keep myself so busy, so consumed with activity just to keep my mind free.

But my mind wasn't free.

I had gone to God's Word many times to find help. Nothing seemed to work.

There was a verse I had read quite a few times before, but this time it was different. In 2 Corinthians 10:5 it says "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

On this day, as I read this verse, one word jumped off the page. Captive. I began to think about this word; then I began to think about it, in context of the verse.

I am supposed to take my thoughts captive.  

This verse doesn't say distract yourself, it doesn't say just forget about it and move on. It says take the thought captive, make it your prisoner. I hold the key, I choose whether or not it is let out.

This revelation changed my thought life.

In addition, I was to do more than just take these ugly thoughts, and throw them in their cell. They also needed to be made obedient to Christ.

So if the ugly thought consuming my mind were, "I have no worth", I would take that thought, and hold it beside what Christ says about my worth. In 1 John 3:16a it says, "By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us. 

Christ saw so much worth in me, that He chose to lay down His life for me. In light of this, I know, the thought that was tearing me up inside, the thought of, "I have no worth" is a lie.

So don't drown out your thoughts, or distract yourself to avoid them. Don't believe that you should just move on. Rather, take these thoughts captive, smack them around a little, and throw them in their cell.

Then let the light of Christ show you, just how wrong they are.