Day 5: Quieting the chatterbox
2 Corinthians 10: 5
5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
I chose this title because Steven Furtick has a book titled this and I love the way he explains for us to quiet the middle man in our mind. Sometimes it is not the devil coming after you in a situation, it is your own carnal thinking and logic that is counting the pennies and speaking the words into you about your situation and you choosing to believe them, that makes them so.
This was the hardest struggle for me when it came to walking in faith. I am very analytical, extremely objectified, and super goal-oriented. Following God does not always add up, does not always create the results you had been desiring, and does not always render the goal that you set forth, yet that does not mean that you are not successful in God’s eyes. Try telling that to my chatterbox when I am staring at a half-done to-do list. It seems almost impossible to believe.
It is vitally important to restoring our confidence that we are taking every thought we have captive to the obedience of Christ as the scripture instructs. The key word here is “every”. We often think if things look or sound good, then it must be God and we can entertain that thought or the idea of something, yet Proverbs instructs us to lean not on our own understanding or to be impressed by our own wisdom, so who are we to make judgement calls on what is good or bad for our lives?
Seizing every thought means holding it up before God, comparing it to the promises that are in His word, and allowing the Holy Spirit to speak what the Lord is saying regarding it. In Jeremiah 29:11 we learned that God has plans for us, in Jeremiah 33:3 it says the plans are to show us great and mighty things, yet we limit God’s ability to increase our confidence in Him if we don’t seize every thought and ask. We should be asking Him, “Is this the great you were referring to? Is this the plan that you saw fit for my future of prosperity?” We can look at something good, when God is preparing something great for us.
The interesting part about this is, our Spirit knows when we are settling for good when God has called us to great. I we don’t seize the thought of the good thing and allow it to be refined by God through the Holy Spirit, once we are engaging with the good thing, our Spirit will feel dis-eased because it is inherently looking for the great thing that God had promised.
This is where the blow in confidence begins to sink in. This is usually the stage where the chatterbox gets even louder. When we are wondering why our thoughts are coming against us from left and right with negativity. Why we can’t seem to be prosperous in something that we once felt strongly that God had called us to. It’s not because we entered it with ill intentions, or even because God has forgotten us, but simply because we need to master the art of quieting all of the thoughts within our fleshly mind, so we can clearly hear from God on what to go into, what to get out of, and how to do it.
Today I want you to write a letter to yourself. The letter will have no real subject or topic. I just want you to write all of the thoughts that come to your mind. Let your mind wander and see where it goes, but keep writing everything. After you have written, I want you to read them back and see how many of them line up with the word of God. Then pray about them.
Practice this throughout the day. Everything you think, even the small insignificant things, I want you to write it down or type it in your notes on your phone. See if you can find a scriptural reference to it and go from there on praying it forward or away from your consciousness.
If you enjoy this practice today, I encourage you to do it as much as you can until it becomes a full routine. In order to fully walk in the confidence that Christ has called you to, you will need to always submit your thoughts to your Heavenly Father so that He may show you where you are to go.