First, to follow up on my statement to yesterday's devotional, I need to also add that, in addition to discovering that my history with ambition was tied to hoping and expecting life to reward me if I just got a job, any job, etc., is that over the last decade-plus, I have discovered that life doesn't actually work that way. Not at all. There are many factors, some around personal growth needs, and others around living in the generation and time and place that I'm in. The bottom line is, one can work really really hard and not reap much. And yet another can work very little and reap much. Alongside the fact that yet another can work hard and reap much, and yet another can choose to not work and therefore will not reap. Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians: "whatsoever a man sows, he also will reap," but in the case of Job, Job reaped terrible circumstances -- and even better circumstances later on -- and didn't sow in either case. (Instead, he was completely at God's mercy in both cases.)
I will share an email I wrote, responding to a devotional I read that spoke to me. The devotional is on the following verse:
Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5
The following is a paragraph that the devotional author shared about his own story with this verse:
When I was a young believer, I was taught that it was my responsibility to bring my every thought into obedience to Christ. I tried and struggled with that for years and ended up with more mental oppression, stress, and guilt than I had started with. One day God opened my eyes and said to me, “Son, keep your focus and your thoughts always on the obedience of Christ, and that will be a powerful weapon to pull down the devil’s strongholds in your mind.” When He said that to me, it felt like the lights were suddenly switched on in my head.
The following is then the email I wrote:
I'll have to admit I've fallen under a similar mindset trap: I know that bringing all thoughts to the cross is good for me, but I also know that experiences & breakthroughs like I've described yesterday is rare. More commonly, I'll choose to bring an anxiety-producing thought, and it'll come right back to me. So I haven't typically experienced the shame that the devotional author experienced, but I have experienced the frustration of "taking everything captive to Christ" not working like I'd expected or hoped. Today, reading through it, I'm realizing: "what is Christ's obedience that they're talking about?", and "what does the picture actually look like in terms of taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ?" I'm guessing His obedience has to do with His death on the cross; but even now in this moment I'm still stumped as to what the picture looks like, in terms of this verse.
I then realized that the answer was in the subsequent paragraph (which I hadn't yet read when I wrote the above):
So what does it mean to capture every thought to the obedience of Christ? Simply this: to focus on Jesus’ obedience to the Father at the cross, through which we were all made forever righteous the moment we believed in Him. Can you see that our obedience today under the new covenant begins with choosing to believe that we are made righteous by Christ’s obedience at the cross? The apostle Paul describes our obedience as “obedience to the faith” (Rom. 16:26)—believing right about what Jesus has done to make us righteous. And when we believe right like this, we will find His grace motivating and empowering us to think and live right.
My project is now up and running. Cheers!
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