A prayer to stop spiraling thoughts by Alicia Headley, read by Liam Martin.

We demolish arguments in every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of

God, and we take captive, every thought, to make it obedient to Christ.

Have you ever had a thought about something small, and then that thought spirals into the worst

case scenario? And before you know it, you've created an entire story in your mind that's

completely false from the reality you're in. I certainly have. And I've noticed a trend that

often thoughts take me captive, rather than me taking them captive. And the next thing I know,

I'm on a wild ride of spiraling thoughts. And from there, those thoughts turn into action.

A thought out of fear, for example, could spiral into a belief that your situation is way worse

than it is, leading you to decide to act based on a fear that came from a simple thought.

And thoughts, my friends, are not real. A thought isn't tangible, yet we can turn it into an actual

reality by our actions, if we allow our thoughts to spiral. So how do we stop the thought before

it spirals into action? In today's verse, Paul knew that the Corinthians could easily be let away

from the truth of the gospel, just like we can be easily led astray by one thought ourselves.

He encouraged them to pull down those thoughts that have been established in their minds,

that are anything other than truth by making every thought obedient to Christ.

To take every thought captive, we must first be aware of our thoughts.

The enemy is loving the culture we're in today because we live in a world full of distractions,

where thoughts are thrown at us at every turn, without us even recognizing it.

We must wake up and look around and pay attention to the thoughts we allow in our minds.

We must guard and shut the gates to our mind and kick out the thoughts that don't belong there.

If you're feeling anxious, ask yourself what the thought behind that feeling is and kick it out.

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