Many Thoughts

So many thoughts. It's like having an aerial view of spiraling and overlapping highways with vehicles in route to many different destinations. This of course, is nothing but a part of his design. I don't mean God, I mean satan. Don't think for a minute that only God has plans for your life; satan definitely has his own agenda.

Satan's number one goal is not to make you a blatant sinner; his goal is to distract you. Making us blatant sinners would to easily be recognized by our moral radars, so satan opts for deception, the oldest trick in the book. Last week at Bible study, pastor Ilnisky taught about a subject that definitely needs as much attention as it can get-Obedience. He talked about Adam and Even in the garden and how their disobedience has engrained in us the same sinful nature of disobedience and rebellion. I guess you can see why the topic isn't heavily raised. It's much easier to talk about 10 ways to get your blessing than 10 ways to live a life of obedience. But, I thank God for vessels that are willing to teach us the the tough lessons that we all need.

Obedience is a key because whether we know it or not, we're all obedient to something or someone. The long short of it all is that our obedience is based on our thought life. When Paul wrote 2 Corinthians, he tried to relate the importance of this by telling us (in 2 Corinthians 10:5) to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Why? Because thoughts that aren't captive to Christ are captive to another power. We already know that Jesus is The Way, The Truth and The Life (John 16:4) so any other is obviously the opposite, being The Wrong Way, The Lie, and The Death. If your thoughts aren't captive to Jesus, then its captive to confusion, lies and death.

So, with that said, are all my thoughts really captive to Christ? Haha, obviously not. If they were captive to Christ, I wouldnt allow my mind to look like a convoluted highway system, which like I said earlier is satan's goal; distraction. He doesn't have to try and make me a blatant sinner, he just has to distract me enough to lose focus of Jesus, so my thoughts will be captive to him (satan).

Once my thoughts are led astray, sin is pretty much inevitable. But the sin by itself is not the worst part; the worst part is not being able to discern the spiritual struggle behind the scenes because now, I wont ever repent, which would stop me from moving forward and experiencing the fullness of God's plans for my life. Do you see how subtle satan is? It's no wonder the mind is the true battlefield. Our mind is like the rudder of a ship; and whether we like it or not, someone is at the wheel directing our path. Who is the captain of your ship?