Taking Thoughts Captive About Our Identity

I was praying during my Bible study one night, just reflecting on what I had learned and talking to Jesus. I found a familiar question, feeling of doubt inside of me rise up, and I finally brought it to my Father.

I asked, "Am I a failure?", specifically questioning if I was being a "good enough" Christian.

First, I want to encourage you with the truth my Abba so graciously encouraged me to speak over myself:

I am cherished and chosen, pursued relentlessly.

I am loved and bought with blood.

I am seen as blameless and pure and without blemish by the King of Kings.

I am adored and given a crown of jewels.

I am a daughter of the Most High.

In short, I am enough, because of who He is.

God reminded me once again of how crucial it is that I take captive these thoughts, because unchecked, untruthful thoughts can wreak havoc on our relationship with God, others, and ourselves. In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes, "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."

We are called and challenged to take captive our thoughts, and if they're not true, noble, right, pure, lovely, excellent, or praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8), then they need to be made obedient to Jesus. Our mind hold such power and influence over the way that we behave and our spiritual, mental, and emotional health, and we cannot allow random, unholy thoughts to reside in our brain any longer. What we think about will become the words we speak, and that will become what we do, and if our mind isn't aligned with Christ, then how can the rest of our life be? My prayer is that we will never become numb to the devastating consequences that we will have to face if we don't guard our minds.

Which is the inspiration for this mini series! I'm going to dive in to different areas that we must examine, challenge, and captivate our thoughts, and make them obedient to Christ. Of course, this series cannot be comprehensive, but I pray that God would use specific areas of my life that He has worked in to encourage and guide you!

And if the introduction was any indication, today we're going to be diving into taking captive thoughts about our IDENTITY.

Our lives and hearts are so precious that we have both God and Satan chasing after them, pursuing us relentlessly, and if we aren't secure in our purpose and who we were made to be, then we're going to allow the wrong person power in our life. Walking in our identity is crucial to the way we see the world, God, and those around us, not to mention how we fight against the enemy's attacks. Confidence in our identity, or a lack thereof, influences the authority we pray with, how we worship, and how bold we are in our faith. It can make or break our mental health and relationship dynamics.

So when the enemy starts whispering lies and questions about your worth, often ever so subtly, you need to pause and call it out.

Too often we let those damaging lies enter and exit our brain without a second thought, giving it the opportunity to plant more insecurity and doubt about ourselves. We have to have an awareness of the thoughts we're dealing with so that we can handle them according to Scripture.

Once you know the thought and you've called it out, you need to pray over it. Bring it to God and ask Him if you're enough or how He sees you. Turn to Him for wisdom and discernment, and surrender those thoughts to Him, so that He can have the opportunity to speak to you and correct any lies that the enemy may have planted.

Prayer is so powerful, so spend some time there, and ask God to help you get to the root of that thought. Then, search Scripture for truth that corrects the thought you just had. We have to speak the truth over ourselves so intentionally, or else we won't actually be making our thoughts captive to Christ. I'd also encourage you to use that Scripture to guide your prayers. Ask the Lord to help you to see yourself in the way that the Bible describes you, and to walk in confidence with those qualities.

Some of my favorite Scripture to encourage me in this area is:

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." - 2 Corinthians 12:9

"For I am convinced that neither life nor death, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:38-39

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." - Ephesians 2:8-10

"For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline." - 2 Timothy 1:7

"The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing." - Zephaniah 3:17

Of course, this isn't a comprehensive list, but I hope that it gives you a good starting place to begin using Scripture to make your thoughts captive to Christ!

Unfortunately, this isn't a one and done situation. We have to repeatedly call out insecure, false thoughts, bring them to the Lord in prayer, and then replace that with truth from the Word of God. But I'm learning that as we are committed and disciplined to being aware of our thoughts, we can experience a renewed intimacy with Jesus, peace, and freedom. What we allow to stay in our mind is so important, and God has given us the power to take captive our thoughts and make them obedient to Christ, so we should practice that authority and fill our mind with godly things.

Does this come naturally to you? Are there specific strategies that you use to take captive your thoughts, specifically regarding your identity?

Also, stay tuned for next week, where we're going to dive into taking captive our thoughts about temptation!