Day 4 - Hold Your Thoughts Captive

One of the most valuable things I have learned over the years is how to hold my thoughts captive.  Sounds crazy, I know ... but God's word even talks about how it is possible to do.

Philippians 4:6-8
⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. 

⁸ And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

The hardest part for me was figuring out how to do it.

So again, I prayed that God would teach me to capture any negative thoughts and remove them!  He is always faithful.

Just like the scripture discusses, above, the very second I realize that I am having a negative thought or I recall a bad memory ... I do one or all of the following:

1. I immediately begin to praise God 
2. I replace the negative thought with a positive one
3. I cast the thought out in Jesus' name
4. I say positive affirmations out loud.  For example: if the thought is that I cannot do anything right, I would reverse it and say something like, I am created by God and I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

We can control our thoughts, we just have to make a conscious effort.  Do not linger on a negative thought, capture it and remove it ... then replace it with a positive thought!

I am praying as you read through each day that you will grow stronger and more confident in your thought life.