The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 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. (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)
Driving down the road you replay the argument you just settled with your spouse that morning. You can remember the tone of voice they used and the look on their face. Perhaps you start saying out loud all the things you wished you could have remembered to say at the time, just to win the argument. By the time you get to work you are filled with negative feelings about your spouse. When they call you later that morning your tone is less than pleasant. You have become a victim of a negative thought life. What you think will always affect what you feel which in turn gives birth to action. How do you stop the rapid downward spiral of a negative thought life? Take it captive!
God informs us of the true enemy in the above verse. It is any thought or reasoning that sets itself up against God’s teachings. Thoughts can be subtle, because no one else hears them and cannot correct any error. That is why God has given us His Word and His Spirit to help us recognize the rebellious thoughts and take them captive. Through His Word we will know the truth as we study it so we can recognize the counterfeit when we hear it. Through His Spirit we will have the power to take the thought captive and demolish it. We need to recognize that the battle for our mind is ongoing. We need to evaluate what we think about.
God actually gives us a measuring stick for our thoughts in Philippians 4:8: “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.”
Throughout your day stop and evaluate your thoughts. If they are not true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy then you need to demolish them by taking your thoughts captive and stopping the downward spiral by getting rid of those negative thoughts. How do you get rid of them? You need to recognize that your thoughts have set themselves up against God’s teaching. You need to confess those thoughts as sin. When you confess, you walk away from it and don’t have anything to do with it again!