A Penny for Your Thoughts

“…take every thought captive to obey Christ…” ~ 2 Corinthians 10:5

Our minds are rarely idle. Thoughts stream through them by the thousands every day: worries, memories, plans, a conversation yet to be had. Imagine how much influence that stream must have on us, especially if it goes unchecked or drifts from the truth of God’s Word. Friends, we ought to think more soberly about our thoughts.

Scripture certainly does. Apart from Christ, the thoughts of our hearts are “only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). Jesus said it’s out of the heart that evil thoughts come, and they defile us (Mark 7:21-23). And Paul directs our minds toward whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable (Phil. 4:8).

But notice the setting of Paul’s command. He is describing a war. He writes of weapons with “divine power to destroy strongholds,” and in that context we are to “take every thought captive” (vv. 4-5). The language is military because the mind is a battleground. Our enemy has been assaulting human thoughts since the garden, and Peter reminds us that he still prowls around “like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).

Of course, the assault rarely looks like a roaring lion. More often it looks like a notification meant to keep us doom-scrolling. It looks like entertainment that quietly trains us to love what the world loves. It looks like a news cycle that keeps us anxious and angry about things we cannot change.

So how do we take a thought captive? Let me offer three suggestions. First, think about your thoughts. Most of our thoughts slip by unexamined, and you can’t capture what you haven’t noticed. Second, test them. Are they true? Do they line up with what God has said, or do they echo the lies of the world, the flesh, and the devil? Third, replace them with something better, like a verse stored up in the heart (Ps. 119:11) or a meditation about Christ. Here is where the spiritual discipline of private and family worship pays off, as we spend time furnishing our minds with God’s Word daily.

But remember, this is not accomplished by self-determination. If it were, we would lose every battle. Paul grounds the call in the gospel: “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). That is something done to us, by the Spirit, as we set our minds on things above (Col. 3:2). And the One who does the work has given us the greatest weapon: “We have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16; Phil. 2:5).

“A penny for your thoughts,” we say when we want someone to open up. God never has to ask. He “discerns our thoughts from afar” (Ps. 139:2), every one of them, including the ones of which we’re ashamed. But that’s the wonder of God’s love: the One who knows our thoughts completely is the same God who in Christ has made us His own. So take your thoughts captive, Christian, and orient them toward obedience to Christ — the One who keeps in perfect peace those whose minds are stayed on Him (Isa. 26:3).

Rev. Kyle W. A. Lockhart, Pastor