CAPTIVE

How do I choose to control my thoughts in the endless cacophony of voices and choices? Gods Word says we can…(Poem is after reflection.)

CAPTIVE

Mark 14:38, Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak...

If I bear iniquity in my heart,  God cannot hear me. Psalms 66.

Iniquity is sin.

Sin is not making the mark.

This not only applies to watching what we think, but not holding others in disdain or in disregard or disapproval.

Keeping ourselves at a distance in this manner from the situation, helps us to look objectively at the person and effectively diffuse it , if so needed.

If we find ourselves judging a persons motives, then that now puts it back on us.  It helps us understand the word.

Judge not, so that you will not be judged.  We can still recognize where the person is and appropriately help them.

Loving your neighbor is not just holding your fingers to your nose , and tolerating the stench, but it is truly sometimes requiring an active faith that enables us to help another.

When we hold someone in disregard we actually also stop our own ears, not just Gods.  It stops us from being aware of their needs.

It can apply in all areas of our life :

In our business relationships,

In dealings in our friends and family

and dealings in our marriage.

Maybe the fact that we are aware of the weaknesses of others is so that we can quietly defuse them and thereby truly help those folks.

But when we choose to hold them in disregard we stop ourselves from being able to help them and then we lose the blessing that we would’ve gotten from helping them.

It can be an opportunity for us to improve and in turn be blessed. We dis ourselves.

Sometimes understanding the source of their attitude, the root cause, can help us to take appropriate action. We don’t know what that person has just encountered and gone through.

Maybe it is wisest to watch and pray, or give a word of encouragement or an act of kindness. If we truly want to make a difference in our neighbors life, let’s not hold them in dis -anything.

We have often told our kids that just because you think it doesn’t mean you have to say it. Exercise prudence.

Did you also know another word for captivated is delight?

Can we take the time to delight?

2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV) says:

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.

Here’s a poem from these reflections:

CAPTIVE

Watch and pray, His Word will plead

To guard our hearts from sin's dark seed

For though our mind may want to do right,

Our body can falter in this fight.

If iniquity finds a place to grow,

Then we will not understand or know

God's voice will then grow faint;

So if we cannot tell

What path is right, what step to take,

Then our hearts for others, will not break.

Judgment springs from hardened hearts,

But love sees deeper, softer parts.

Not mere tolerance of faults we see,

Active faith is rooted in humility.

Disdain may close both heart and ear,

And keep others from drawing near,

For those whose needs are often missed,

When empathy is not on our list.

In every facet and station of our days—

In work, in home, in wedded ways—

We’re called to watch, to love, to care,

To hold each other’s lives in sincere prayer.

We may think

We understand another man’s flaw,

But should we criticize,

Point or stop in awe?

Can we hear the Fathers voice first

And quiet our hearts

To truly thirst?

For then when we still our minds,

We help mankind.

So, let’s take captive

Of every thought we bear,

And choose to live with love and care.

For in doing so, we find our call—

To love our neighbor, in truth and all.

——-

Let’s take captive our own thoughts and choose to live a life of significance!

©️Donald Schuler

8/27/2024