One second, two second, three… oops, there goes my wandering thoughts again. Sorry, Lord, once more I bring my thoughts back to focus on you. Lord, I don’t want my thoughts to wander, I want to think about you, to ponder your marvelous ways, to tune my ears to the sound of heaven, to hear your voice, help me in this area of my life. Once more I dwell you; one second, two second, three… How often do we, with good intentions, start to meditate on the Lord, earnestly desiring to enter into His presence, to hear His voice, then – only a few moments later find our thoughts filled with other things? I for one must admit it’s all too often for my liking. Taking every thought captive is not as easy as it might sound, we can take a clue from the 2 Corinthians 10:5 verse indicating it’s not going to be easy, the word “Captive”. To take something captive insinuates a battle in which something or someone is captured and bound so it no longer has freedom. The victory over our lawless thoughts is won with each scrimmage, with each wondering thought brought back onto topic. We are bombarded continuously from all angles with information demanding to be processed and problems dealt with, making it difficult for us to be still. Yet Psalm 46:10 tells us to be still and know that He is God. It too is a battle, we have an enemy who doesn’t want us to be still, for if he can keep us busy or distracted, even with doing good, we won’t be tuning into the sound of heaven, have time to clearly hear the Lord’s voice, or be His presence. If we are not still, refreshed or hearing the battle strategy, we are unable to fight effectively and decisively.
As we recognize our thoughts have wandered we must fight the desire to follow them. We need to stop – then intentionally turn our thoughts back to the Lord. We should not get discouraged, feel ashamed, or let the enemy beat us up in this battle; but rejoice in each victorious scrimmage where we stopped and refocused. A key in any battle is to submit to God, tell him our struggles and ask for his help; in this case to help us focus and take every thought captive. In some situations we may even need to ask to him to help us want to take our thoughts captive. As we surrender to God and resist the enemy, not focusing on distractive thoughts, eventually he will flee. It doesn’t say he will flee instantly, he doesn’t want to give up where he has had free reign, but greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. Victory is ours with God on our side.
One second, two second, three second, four – I dwell on you, Lord.
Beyond the Silver Coin 