What do these two words have in common? Well, capture is one I have been planting my heart on for several weeks now. Clothe is one I read last night that I'm adding to my "plant my heart" list. Let me share them with you, they are really making (active) a difference in how I think about my day, my children, my family, my friends, everything.
"We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We CAPTURE their rebellious thoughts and TEACH them to obey Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5
I'm speaking this into my heart when I wake up, when I exercise, when I'm with my kids, and before I lay my head down on my pillow, and everywhere in between, it is the power of God within me that can only truly teach my heart to obey Christ, in the all the many ways that the word, obey, means.
One translation I must have read recently used the word "train" instead of teach. Either mean the same thing...think about it, when you train or teach someone to do something (ride a bike, learn a new job, run a marathon) -- each takes hard work and time, hard work and time, over and over again, daily discipline. So often, if I'm honest, I am just like every other American and I want the quick fix. Give me what I think I need right now, and I mean right now. I find unfortunately this carries over to my spiritual life, and I sense God speaking to my heart, saying, training and teaching, Kendra, this takes time. To turn "rebellious thoughts" around after 36 years, it takes time, and an active plan of training and teaching everyday, every minute. Not just one day or several days of training and then you drop it, to learn and grow you have to, have to, have to continually train and teach your heart to do exactly opposite of what our sinful, rebellious hearts and thoughts might direct us to -- and this is a daily discipline that you never drop and say it's finished until the day we die. And, I wonder where my childrens' rebellious natures come from? Really?! All of us have hearts that are naturally inclined to evil and sin, just as I am teaching and training my heart, we are called to teach and train our children in the heart of Jesus and his ways, which are so different from what the world wants from us.
"CLOTHE yourself with the PRESENCE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST and don't let yourself THINK about ways to indulge your evil desires." Romans 13:14
What an imagery, y'all! (I had to put a southern flare here because that's honestly what just went through my head!) Think about your morning ritual...everyday you choose an outfit to wear - khakis and a polo, a dress, a suit, exercise clothes - and you clothe yourself with every piece of that outfit everyday until your outfit is completely on and you are ready to face your day. The power we have just like this to CLOTHE ourselves with the presence of Jesus everyday is a "task" we have to plant our hearts on! Just like everyday, we put a new outfit on because the one from yesterday was dirty, smelly, stained...it's the same with our hearts and our bodies, EVERYDAY, God gives us grace to CLOTHE our hearts with the presence of Jesus since the day before our hearts became dirty, smelly, and stained. He can give us fresh eyes, ears to clothe our hearts in his presence to make our attitudes and lives reflect Him ... I guess, somedays we have clothes we are wearing that just don't feel right or we don't feel good in...so somedays, we may find that just as we may change our outfits several times until we find one that feels right and good (not that it's all about feeling right and good, but you get the jist), it's the same, God gives us endless opportunity and grace to CLOTHE ourselves with power of Jesus within us - do overs are endless. In fact, he wants us to continually seek Him all day, everyday, throughout the day, every minute of the day. You may think I'm going a little overboard here, but I'm not! The days when I seek him and allow my spirit within myself to be clothed by his presence, the better my day is all around. This is not about the act and checking it off my list for the day, this is about truly allowing our hearts to be transformed and changed by the power of the Holy Spirit within us, daily and by that work in our hearts, we are truly being changed.
So go ahead, take captive every thought and continually train and teach your thoughts to be obedient to Christ. Go ahead, clothe yourself (daily, minute by minute!) with the presence of Jesus so that our thoughts would focus on Jesus within us and his changing spirit and not our evil thoughts and desires! There is some action here on our part, you can't just say this will happen to me without opening your heart daily to the work of the cross within us. Open your heart to this work, you will be blessed beyond measure. I know when my days are focused on these things, I have been blessed more than I could ever imagine! What a privilege and honor that we have this gift of presence of Jesus...what a true gift!!
As always, thanks for stopping, I pray that this has blessed in some way today to keep on fighting the war within our hearts!
Love,
Kendra
