Some folks don't know we have an option. 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 are assigned ("I can't call you; I'm in Bosnia") 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 Cor 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 the soldiers and the thoughts are our enemies. Our assignment is to protect the homeland and refuse entrance to trashy thoughts. The minute they appear on the horizon, we go into action. "This heart belongs to God", we declare, "and you aren't getting in here until you change your allegiance".
"Selfishness, step back! Envy, get lost! Find another home, Anger! You aren't allowed on this turf". Capturing thoughts is serious business.
We are not a victim of our thoughts. We have a vote. We have a voice. We can exercise thought prevention.
By: Max Lucado
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