One of the many things God has been teaching me lately is to be a "doer of the Word". I so often am quick to give a gentle rebuke to those I encounter and to admonish them with a passage of scripture in hopes that they may press on and pursue Christ. However, recently I was convicted in my heart by the tendency I have to not follow my own encouragement and rebuke. One such thing I fail miserably in and have been striving at improving is taking every thought obedient to Christ...and what a struggle it truly has been, yet a rewarding one in the process.
2 Corinthians 10:5 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." I am quick to quote this verse yet fail to act it out practically in my own life on a daily basis. I have wrestled with the idea of what that means and how not obeying this command I could be in disobedience to Christ.
I have singled out a specific idea...the idea of "truth" and thinking upon that only. Philippians 4:8 says, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." It is easy to focus on things that are not reality, whether that be in dreaming or thinking on things that cause you to stumble in your walk with the Lord or whatever it may be. It also is easy to think untrue things about those around us, especially those in the body of Christ. It is easy to believe the things we hear about people or make preconceived judgments about people around us without giving these people the opportunity to show themselves to us.
Thinking about things that are true requires diligence and much strength from the Lord. It is a constant struggle yet something that we as Christians should strive to accomplish. It is something I struggle with daily, but a battle I am willing to fight as it is allowing me to experience God's grace, faithfulness and truth in His Word like never before! God's word is truth and therefore as we think about things,a as girls dream things up, or think things that are not edifying to the body or others we need to stop and meditate on His Word, pray or worship in order to fill our minds with those things that are right, true, lovely and pure...think on HIM!
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1 comment:
Vanessa,
I would just like to say that I really enjoyed your post and we all truly do need to be doers of the Word and not just encourage others to. I would also like to say that some of your actions this past weekend at retreat really convicted me of how I am quick to judge others and not give them the benefit of the doubt and I would just like to say thank-you for that, it's not everyday that you get confronted on sin in your life and the best part about it was that I don't think you were doing it to show me my sin, but rather you were just being yourself. Keep righting the blog I enjoyed the couple of posts I read.
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