a little bit of this and a little bit...more of this

do you ever feel like you are 
just
not
getting
it?


today i read 2 corinthians 10:5.
"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"


i have read this a million times. at least.


let's break this down.
what is an argument and pretension that would set itself up against the knowledge of God?


the ESV calls it lofty opinions. 
what would those be?
well, for me...they look a little something like this:


*i deserve to be treated with respect all the time
*the fact that i don't "own" my own home means that i have not quite arrived yet.
*what my body looks like determines who i am
*i can do things my own way, not God's, and there will be no consequences.


do any of those look familiar?
maybe you can add your own.


i know where to find the knowledge of God.
His Word.
i know that i am told to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus...but what does that look like?


i'll tell you one thing.
it never looks like me thinking that i know it all!
and it almost never looks like what my feelings are at the time!


what it does look like is:
*reading and studying God's Word.


*it looks like spending time with people who are challenging me to do right and constantly helping me to grow.


*so i guess it would therefore also look like not spending time with people who are not even doing right themselves, so are of course not challenging me to do right!


*it looks like being diligent. hard-working. fighting to do what's right. not allowing my own "knowledge" to become higher than God's!


so here's the deal.


-i wake up in the morning.
-i make a conscious decision to spend the rest of the day actually fighting this battle of life that i'm in. not pretending that i'm not even in one.
-i make an intentional choice to spend time with God: hearing from him and talking to him.
-i make a choice to remember that with everything God has done for me? the least...very least i can do is try to please Him. 
-i remember that just like i want my friends to love and care about me? that's how my God wants to be treated too.


then?
then.
i do it.
that's it!


because my problem comes in here...
if i'm not paying attention. 
if i'm just cruising along in life, with the redundancy of life...not paying attention to any of the darts being thrown at me.
then before i know it...my knowledge is all of a sudden ahead of God's.
and i start believing it!


how stupid can you be??
i guess pretty stupid!


so maybe i need a little bit of this...
and then a little bit more of it.
and then some more...
ok. you get the point!


and i can't say enough how important it is to surround yourself with friends who are living to please God the way you are.


because when you are spending the majority of your time with people who aren't taking God's knowledge seriously? 
pretty soon...
you are allowing their thoughts and opinions to be set up before God's!


we need to demolish those things!
that means 
destroy
ruin
tear down
wreck


them's fightin' words!
and that is exactly. the. point.


we are in a battle here.


so what arguments and pretensions are you allowing to be set up against the knowledge of God?


fight it!
hard!
get rid of them.
take those stupid thoughts captive, and make them obey God.


once and for all.