Captive thoughts

November 18, 2007

As I was in praise and worship this morning I was having a terrible time. Was it the praise and worship team at my church? Nope! They are top notch. Was it the dread of the preaching that was going to come up? Nope, I love listening to my pastor. Was it the lighting, the chairs, too loud, too soft? No, no, no and no. It was me.

For some reason I would start to get into the songs and something would cross my mind. My mind would wander away on it. Since I work Children's church sometimes I was worried I might miss the coded request for help form the numbers display for babies needing comfort. From there my mind would wonder to what we would be doing in Children's church next time we met. OK, got that knocked out and then on to worship. Well, how was I going to cook the chicken when I got home? And on and on it went. I would think of something, pull myself back to praise and then wander off again. Since I take notes during the sermon, it is harder to wander during that. But it did just once, when pastor read the following verse:

2 Corinthians 10:5 Complete Apostles' Bible
(5) 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,

Now, he was preaching about being in rest knowing God has it under control. I did not hear that though. I knew exactly what my problem was. I was not taking my thoughts captive. God will not take those thoughts away from us. They are there and we have to deal with them. I had to say, thoughts, get out of here, this is God's time, let me worship Him!

How about you. In your time with God, in or out of church, do you take your thoughts captive? In your daily walk, do you think Godly thoughts and keep captive those thoughts that are not Godly or of a good report? Neither do I, but I am now working on it.