There is a verse that has been following me around lately.
I find that sometimes things get to me, get discouraging, make me feel bitter, disrupt my mood, damage my resolve and sometimes just plain make me feel down. On top of some other ways that God has been working on me, one of them is holding my thoughts “captive.” Here is the verse I'm talking about:
2 Corinthians 10:5 "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."
Has this ever happened to you? I'm sure it has, if you have ever been exposed to the word. I've noticed that occasionally, especially when God is really trying to get something through to me, a verse will kind of just "show up;" in a song, a television show, a service, a book, a conversation, through my devotional, through a bible study or even just through a friend of mine that speaks it to me.
Lately, I think God has been telling me to keep my thoughts captive...to make them more like something He would think. I really like to think of myself as a non-judgmental person, but recently I've realized that maybe I really am, just in a way I hadn't originally thought. Example: when I forget to do something on my days off when I'm to be fundraising, or when I don't do all the things I've wanted to do because I've been distracted by less important things, I feel very down on myself. And not just a little disappointed because I forgot to write a Thank You card...it's much worse than that. I will literally spiral so deeply that I'll start to feel like maybe I'm not cut out to be a missionary because, "*So-and-so* wouldn't have forgotten to write that person!"
This is something I should not do. And there is so much negativity in my mind sometimes that I am unable to come away from it until I take a step back and look at the big picture. Recently, my mom mentioned my occasional issues to a woman who runs an intercessory prayer ministry. The woman very wisely said that when praying, she saw images of me standing in a forest directly in front of a very large tree. What a sense of humor God has...he shows people that I literally cannot see the forest for the trees.
When I spend more time in the quiet with God and in prayer, I find that things get much better. Pray with me that this verse wouldn't follow me around anymore. That I would readily embrace it and learn what God is trying to tell me and put it into practice.
Thanks for reading...Love to you all!
Alison
This is something I should not do. And there is so much negativity in my mind sometimes that I am unable to come away from it until I take a step back and look at the big picture. Recently, my mom mentioned my occasional issues to a woman who runs an intercessory prayer ministry. The woman very wisely said that when praying, she saw images of me standing in a forest directly in front of a very large tree. What a sense of humor God has...he shows people that I literally cannot see the forest for the trees.
When I spend more time in the quiet with God and in prayer, I find that things get much better. Pray with me that this verse wouldn't follow me around anymore. That I would readily embrace it and learn what God is trying to tell me and put it into practice.
Thanks for reading...Love to you all!
Alison
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PO Box 181
West Unity, OH 43570
2. Click here, specify me, Alison Settle, and you can donate through your amazon.com account.
3. Or for monthly donations via electronic transfer, send a request by email to rebekah.burkholder@ecmi.org
