"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds), casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ . . . "
2 CORINTHIANS 10:3-5
Paul writes, “ . . . we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. . . “ Good preachin’ and hard livin’ . . . and lately, harder on most mornings than usual.
One morning last week the entire thought actually slipped out before I could grab it: I do not want to go to work. I do not want to do this.
The scary thing was that I meant it. At least at that moment. Yep, at that moment, I meant it with all my heart. I wanted to wave a magic wand and magically poof myself into Cinderella. (That particular morning I might have even enjoyed cleaning the fireplace.)
No, that’s not right—the Cinderella part, I mean—I think what I really wanted was to maybe be the fluffy voluptuous fairy godmother who gets to tap others with the magic wand while she’s flitting and floating around to wherever she sees something or someone needing her own special touch. (Stopping ever so often, of course, not only to enchantingly transform the lives of the downtrodden, but to decorate their homes, as well.)
But, the cool thing about being a 50-Plus Woman is that I’ve lived long enough to get what Paul means in verse 5: “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ . . . “
You see, I know that Papa has called me to this place that I sometimes call work and on other days the School House. I know that this is my Macedonia (at least for now). And, oh, brothers and sistas, how dangerous it would be for me to let my imaginations run wild until they become strongholds on those mornings when it is hard to leave the Casita and my projects and my journaling and my computer screen and my . . . well, you get the idea.
It is in those moments that my flesh-wants could so easily become the high things that I could then so naturally shift to exalting against the knowledge of God.
Thank God—literally!—that the Spirit within me rebels against that and refuses to collaborate with my flesh, instead, choosing to snatch up that thought, take it back into custody, and place it under the lordship of Jesus that the rest of me might follow in obedience. (I’m tellin’ you, Dog the Bounty Hunter ain’t got nothin’ on the Holy Spirit when it comes to snatchin’ up!)
I was called to Africa a couple of times. And for a while to the exotic streets of Pasadena. But these days, Papa has called me mostly to Seabrook. And, so help me God, I will be obedient.
Even on mornings when my imagination longs to take me elsewhere.
What about you? Do you ever struggle with where Papa has placed you? With the ministry He’s given you? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Meanwhile,
Still grinning, still snatchin’,
Pamm
