Taking Thoughts Captive
30,000 thoughts go through our head a day.
Are you running your thoughts or do your thoughts run you?
Are you a victim to negative spirals of worry, anxiety, stress, fear, hatred or resentment? If so, you don't need to be any longer. You and your tongue can team up to wage war on these spirals of negativity, by making purposeful declarations, out loud.
For me this has become necessary recently, when breastfeeding Tiger through the night.
When I head to bed, my whole body is longing for a long, deep, uninterrupted nights sleep. Yet I know that in a few hours a certain little lady is going to need to be fed. The process of feeding and resettling her takes on average an hour and a half and this happens on 4 hour cycles. So it's quite intense.
When Dom says goodnight 'I hope you have a good night', I can find myself thinking 'yeah right, we all know what's coming', and there I lay before myself a horrendous meal of negativity, with side portions of self pity and resentment. It's ugly and it only makes the nights harder.
So I have learnt that I need to catch myself and intentionally choose and even speak out loud my outlook for the night ahead.
'I'm going to have an awesome night. I am going to meet with Jesus in the quietness, I am going to bond with Tiger. I am going to be able to feed her without the distraction of the other children.' Then I choose to start thanking God, 'Thank you Lord that you are with me. Thank you that my body is perfectly designed for this task. Thank you that your mercies are new every morning and I will have energy and grace for the day ahead. Thank you that though there may be pain in the night, joy comes in the morning. Thank you that babies are your good idea. Thank you that you designed them to be this dependant and needy and you know best. Thank you for this precious time, that will go so fast. Please help me to enjoy it and not wish it away.'
By the end of that session of thanks, I feel like a new person, ready to take on the world.
But when the next night comes around I have to make those choices again. We are in a daily battle and each morning we must choose afresh to clothe ourselves with the helmet of salvation, belt of truth and all the rest of the armour, to enable us to stand!
Whatever battle you are facing today, remember that you do have the power to take thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ and walk in increasing victory all the days of your life. Hear more here.
Thea xx