Our Weapons

Note From Heather:
Hey Girls! It is a great pleasure for me to introduce you to our newest contributor. I have had the great pleasure of getting to know Lundie better at Moms of Grace and am honored to have her join our contributor team here! Take a moment and welcome her, and join her here on Mondays as she shares what the Lord has laid on her heart for you!

I struggle with my weight. It’s a battle I have fought, won, re-lost, tied, surrendered, revolted, and yielded so many times, I sometimes get sick of talking about it. But I have come to realize that is exactly what Satan wants. He wants me defeated. Or even worse, he wants me to pretend that nothing is even wrong! He wants me distracted and deceived, but I am a child of God and determined not to let myself become “easy pickings”!!

I recently listened to a heartfelt podcast by a woman named Crystal Munson. She was speaking on the topic of gluttony. After hearing her testimony, I have been convicted by the Holy Spirit that my problem with overeating is in fact gluttony, and therefore is sin. (Please note, I am not attempting to convince anyone that their struggles with being overweight is due to gluttony - that issue is completely between each individual and the Holy Spirit - I’m just sharing what’s going on with me. I do believe, however, that the scripture I’m about to share applies to any struggle with sin that God wants us to defeat.)

So, the next step for me was to try to figure out how to fight sin in my life. Sounds easy right?!? Ha.

I knew I needed direction from scripture. I will tell you right now, I have read so many Bible studies and Christian books and blogs on strongholds lately that I don’t know which of them talked about this Scripture. Though, I would love to give credit where credit is due, I guess ultimately the credit belongs to the Holy Spirit. He brought the scripture to mind as I questioned my next steps. What came to mind was the phrase “take every thought captive”. So I used my trusty BibleGateway.com toolbar and found this:

2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 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.

So, let’s see…

• Our weapons are not the weapons of the world - To me this means I do not need to look to Hollywood for what makes them successful. My tools of success won’t be coming from things I see on infomercials, or from Dr. Phil, or Oprah. Ok, so where do they come from? I must read on….
   
• Our weapons demolish strongholds - The stronghold that sin has taken up in the dead center of my life can’t stand up against “our weapons”. That sounds promising…!
   
• Weapon #1 - Demolish anything that blocks the knowledge of God - For me, that’s anything that gets in the way of my morning prayer and Bible study time. When I don’t actively put my “Getting to know God Time” first thing in my day, it gets blocked and procrastinated and de-prioritized so quickly it’s almost a lost cause. Getting to know God is not something that happens naturally. Satan’s forces actively work to get in the way of that. Why? Because that is where the all the Power lies. If we become separated from God, we’re powerless!
   
• Weapon #2 - Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ - Does anyone else see how amazingly powerful this is? If I can stop my gluttony when it is in the *thought* stages, before it becomes action? Then the battle can be won! If my self indulgent thoughts are allowed to wander freely in my mind, they become comfortable. Easy. Familiar. Then when Satan comes up and lays a ripe opportunity in front of me, the step into a sinful action is smooth. I lose the battle with almost no struggle.
   

Do you struggle with things that block your knowledge of God? What are some practical ways to help take thoughts captive and obedient to Christ? Please, share your reaction to this scripture. I’d love to hear more thoughts on this!