EP 41 How to Control our Thought Life - Kasey Price

After a decade of gathering women together for prayer, we are inspired to bring our words of encouragement to you. This is iRefresh. Welcome to iRefresh, where we're ordinary women who desire to do extraordinary things through the power of prayer and God's word. I am gonna have a wonderful conversation with my friend, Kasey Price. Cheryl. And I'm Cheryl Clare. And we are gonna invite you to have a devotional with us today. How's that sound? Sounds great. Good. Tell me what God has been putting on your heart, and I want us to interact, and I've got my Bible here, and you've got your notes, and let's just see what the Lord wants to do. Okay, well, I've just in the mornings have been praying and something that the Lord continually keeps bringing to our prayer time is the importance of taking thoughts captive. And, you know, what does that mean? What does that look like in the day to day when you're taking thoughts captive? And so the Lord's been so sweet to just share a little bit about that in our prayer times. Okay, now where is that in the scripture? I think we've got notes? Yes. Well, so what does taking thoughts captive mean? What does that mean? That's a phrase that's used a lot, I feel like. Yes. What does it mean? That's a lingo of the church. Yeah, take it captive. So what can we say that that would mean today of taking captive? We're not chasing down thoughts. Right. I mean, we are, but in, how would you say, what's in a different way? To me, taking a thought captive is, one, being able to recognize thoughts either come from the Lord or a thought that is not of God. And taking it captive, actually recognizing that it's not a thought that's of the Lord. And stopping then and there, thinking about it and just letting it go and replacing it with the truth of the Lord. Okay, let's do an example. Okay, so first of all, the scripture is 2 Corinthians 10.5. And why don't you read that passage first? Okay, it says, We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. And I like in the Passion Translation it says, insist that they bow in obedience to the Mighty One. And... So literally taking our thoughts and insisting that they line up with the truth of the Lord. You know, I think when I take it for my own personal life, over the years, I grew up where I feel like a lot of my own thinking, it's not necessarily we say the enemy, but it's my own even self-talk, where I'm in my head, I'm thinking, and I'm not thinking great things about myself. You know, you go into the restroom to get ready for the day, and you're like, sometimes our thoughts are not the most edifying of ourselves. And I think that would be one of those times where we need to take captive So what, okay, if you have, as a girlfriend, like, what would you tell me if I go in and I'm like, I'm so down on myself? What would you say to me? How to change that thought process? Well, I think just first knowing who you are in Christ and what the Lord says about you. Because these thoughts, like you said, they might not necessarily be from the enemy. It's thoughts that we think about ourselves. But when you know what Scripture says, when you know what the Lord thinks about you, immediately that thought might come to you in the bathroom and you look in the mirror and you feel... I don't like the way I look today or you know I'm disappointed that this didn't happen and I'm feeling this way about it replace that thought immediately you know no thank you lord that I'm your daughter that I'm the apple of your eye and you know just speaking those truths to replace so that's a good scripture So, you know, that is a good point for all of us that we can take those thoughts. But then, I don't know, I've had our friend Christy Waters was telling us the other day that she this year has started taking different points about who she is and then writing them down and actually confessing those things. of finding out that I'm the daughter of the Most High God, you know, that He is my shepherd. So I know that He is, what does that mean in today's terms? But that means He's my protection. He's looking out for me. Right. Especially, you know, Casey, as a single person and you're going about all the time by yourself, I'm thinking you're going to be wanting to capture like, okay, thank you that you are my safety. You're my protection. Yes. You know, so I mean even those thoughts of not being caught up in fear. Right. But recognizing that God is also my protection. Yeah. So, maybe there's some other things that you can think about. What has God been showing you about just capturing your thoughts? Well, you know, as a teacher, I feel like I'm constantly bombarded all day long with thoughts. You know, sometimes it's about what I'm teaching the kids or what I'm not teaching the kids that I am supposed to, you know, all my plans to be getting to today. And then at the same time, thinking about what seems like a million other things, you know, going on in my life. And that can become overwhelming and hard to go about my day in a positive way. And so just, um, you know, really recognizing those thoughts and not giving life to them because the more you think about them and dwell on them, the negative thoughts, it affects how you live. Your emotions get triggered, right? Yeah, you can become emotionally exhausted and drained. And so, you know, just not giving life to those thoughts, immediately letting them go. And that takes serious time. That doesn't change overnight, okay? So when we're saying something like that, really what we're doing is we're starting. It's kind of like the beginning of a year. You have a whole new plan. Not everybody does this, but a lot of people, you have all new goals. It's a new year, so I'm going to go on a diet. I'm going to go exercise. Mm-hmm. So it's the same process from what I'm hearing is when you're trying to capture and stop the thoughts, but it's not even sometimes your own thoughts, when you said you're at school, you're hearing being bombarded by other thoughts that are coming at you. Yeah. So, okay, so let's talk about it. Let's say maybe it's a parent and they are critiquing your teaching skills. What is it within your mind that helps you to recognize God, to help you to not take that to where you kind of go down a negative path? You know, I think it kind of goes back to earlier when we were talking about knowing your worth and who you are in Christ. And yes, as a teacher, especially young in the profession, I can always grow. There's always critiquing that I do need, but I, you know, I'm called to this job. I'm equipped for this job. And so, you know, just reminding myself that even when I get those thoughts, maybe I feel like I'm not as, you know, a great enough teacher or, I'm not doing this the correct way just knowing that you know what the Lord has equipped me for this job and where I feel weak he's strong and well that's a good balance you know it's being willing to take that criticism and as taking it to the Lord right but then being willing to learn if you need to learn something but you're you know that's it you made a good point is knowing your worth And I think that's so important. I mean, there's so much besides just taking your thoughts captive that goes back to knowing your worth and knowing who you are in Christ. That's so valuable. You know, I think, you know, we as women, and obviously I'm in the older age bracket, but no matter all the different seasons we will walk through as women, there is such a challenge that we can face of keeping the thought of having value. Because... You're so, you're beautiful, you're put together. People probably think there's nothing wrong. She's got it all together. But, you know, internally, sometimes the struggle certain days is just real. And like you said, it's sometimes it's constant. It's not just a one, you know, I do this one time in the morning. Lord, I, you know, take this thought captive. It's an all day at times, it seems like. And you have to, you know. constantly renew your mind throughout the day and recognize nope that is not a thought of the Lord let it go so it's a discipline that you're so you're in your thought process you are really telling yourself to stop put a pause on that and replacing it with a new thought and allowing the Lord that's a great thing too about the Holy Spirit helps us even in those moments even if you can't think of a scripture It seems like the Holy Spirit does give us a phrase of this word or something to help us identify who we are. And even thank goodness for Google because, you know, just going to Google search and if maybe you feel like you are not hearing from the Lord or you're not sure what scripture to go to that you know from memory that could replace your negative thought, just searching on the Internet. Okay, what does the Lord say about this? Or going to the Bible app and searching a topic. Bible app is great. You know the other thing too, Bible Gateway has it, YouVersion. There's so many different apps or if you're on your, you know, depending on if you're on an iPad or something. I know that I will also go to, I did this actually the other day. I was scribing, which is something we do at iRefresh. And when we're praying in personalized prayer is we'll be doing, I was writing down what the Lord was sharing with other people as we were praying. some of the women praying, I was writing down and they were giving phrases of scripture, but they weren't giving me the whole thing. And like they didn't give the Bible reference. So I would start writing and then I would go down and I just grabbed my phone and I would do a search. So I'd do the phrase and then I would, you know, on and I would then find out where the reference was so I could make sure that the people knew that. And one thing is a wonderful thing that we have on IRefresh.net is, I also was using that when we were praying over someone when they had some fear and they need some peace. So they were praying peace over this woman. I went over to IRefresh.net and on there I could search and I knew we had a section on peace, scriptures. So I typed it in and it went right to that section where I could pull up scriptures and then they were personalized prayers right under each scripture. So that building up, even myself, I may not know where to go, but I know that if we can refer people back to the Word, all of us need it, is when I'm trying to overcome fears or I'm trying to overcome a challenge, that the Word, we start meditating on the Word. And really you have to have that. You know, when we say take thoughts captive, it's really cannot take that thought captive without truly replacing it with the truth of God. So it's exchanging. So it's giving your lie of the enemy, lie to yourself, and it's recognizing if I'm condemning even the way I look and I've done my best, then I also have to trust God that Lord you've made me. He says in the scriptures, you fearfully and wonderfully made me, that I have to recognize that. And sometimes, you know, it's about maybe emotional things. There's a lot of things involved in it. But I have to say over the years and being around great women of prayer, that helped to spur that on in me. I don't know, the other thing I find too, is it helps if I hear one of my friends saying something kind of down on themselves. Yeah. You know, that great accountability to each other is like, excuse me. Right. That's a lie. Right? So we can help each other. Yeah, so building each other up in that. Or having a friend too, you know, to share if you're walking through a tough season or something, you know, is heavy on your heart instead of, you know, thinking and processing this internally and being down on yourself with these negative thoughts, opening up with. somebody who you know will be able to pray for you and encourage you in Christ through that situation. That's powerful because it really helps us to stay up. And that's where I really enjoy the things that we can do for each other. Like when we feel sensing to even text, I know, someone, you know, if you feel like a lot of times, you know, you're, you're just sending a scripture maybe, or just saying, you know, I care, I'm praying for you, you're in my thoughts, which is a good replacement of our thinking. Yeah, and that's another thing that, you know, the Holy Spirit has been teaching me in the prayer times that I'm having in the morning, is to listen when we feel throughout the day, you know, if the Lord brings to memory somebody driving down the road, and I start thinking about a person I haven't thought of in a while, You know, I sometimes have been trying to pause and ask the Holy Spirit, okay, what is it that you brought this person to my memory for and what do you want me to do? You know, whether that's reaching out, like you said, sending them a text message or calling them or just checking in because at the same time that we are being bombarded with negative thoughts or, you know, working on taking thoughts captive, chances are that person or whoever is also going through that. And that's a powerful thing though, it's really praying. You know, when we can pray for each other, as we are feeling led, The whole thing sometimes is a little emoji going out to someone can make such a key factor when you knew that you were led to pray for someone. That power of prayer makes such a world of difference in our lives. And that really is part of capturing our thoughts. It's also capturing the heart of God when he puts thoughts in us and prompts us like we should do something. And what is it? You know, back in the day, we used to write notes. So instead of texting. But I sometimes will feel like I really need to make a point of sending a note to someone. Because I really love the opportunity where you think about someone long enough where you want them to know. Because it really edifies and builds them up. Well, I've been on the receiving end of that, you know, just getting a text from a friend when I'm going through a hard day or actually last week I had a really tough week at school, you know, working with the kids and it was there's just a lot going on and I got home. from a hard day and I had a letter in the mail from one of my really good friends that doesn't live here in town and so that just was a great you know blessing to me because it was kind of a surprise that was a little pick-me-up after my you know rough day so you want to be obedient when you feel that prompting to reach out to somebody because you never know the impact that it will have on them. Mm-hmm. It's a ripple effect. You know, when they are able to give, it delights them when you even let them know like, hey, if you only knew what my life had been like that day, that it was like the God moment. Yeah. So that is a great part of capturing not just our own thoughts, but somebody else helped to capture good thoughts. Right. You know, what is the scripture says that, you know, think on those things that are pure, And a good report, right? Yeah, so those are, if you came around, if you've been surrounded around maybe even co-workers or people that tend to be either gossipy or seem to be talking negative, what would be some suggestions that you have tried to put in your own life to capture your environment around you? to keep up. Does that make sense? Yes, that does. And I think, you know, just constantly being in prayer. That's in the scripture that we need to be praying continually. And so not that it's always an out loud prayer, but just praying, you know, in the spirit, in my mind, or... You know, when maybe something is going on around me that I don't want to be part of or I know is not going to be edifying to the Lord. You know, just praying in my mind. Or sometimes I find myself just singing a worship song, you know, instead of trying to, you know. That will change the atmosphere. Yeah. If they hear you kind of whispering. Well, no, they don't hear me singing it. But, you know, in my mind. Right. That's good. You know, I think one of the things sometimes I'm learning as I'm getting older is should we not even make more of a bolder stand? Sometimes our silence and not interacting when someone's saying something, not engage in that conversation, but just our quietness. and trying to maintain personal peace can help to shift the atmosphere. You know, and sometimes we're trying to help capture some other people to bring down their level of negativity. And I think there's sometimes the Holy Spirit can give us little promptings of our silence is probably the most precious thing we can offer to them, not in a judgment, but in a way for them to help to like make better decisions, you know, and not engaging in it. so they don't feel like like well oh she's too hot you know high and mighty because I felt like in the past I tried to not engage but in I didn't mean to be rude I was just trying for me not to go there well they know that whenever they're not gonna get a response out of you or you're going to stay silent they're gonna eventually stop coming to you with those things that's true yeah so tell me other some things that the Lord's been showing you about taking your thoughts captive that the Lord was showing me Well, personally, I tend to be very hard on myself and, um, you know, just even everyday life, we, our flesh is weak and we send away when we make mistakes and, um, not staying in that place of shame or condemnation. And so as far as taking your thoughts captive, whenever I mess up or I miss the mark, you could really dwell on that and get down on myself, you know, that I'm not enough and so taking those thoughts captive as far as, you know, replacing those with the Lord's truth, you know, thank you Lord that there's no condemnation in Christ and just constantly renewing myself with Scripture, reminding myself of what the Lord thinks about me and that yes, I might miss the mark and yes, I might sin and the Lord's grace covers that. And so that's... That's really good. You know, that's what we do need to know, that God forgives us. And we have to repeat that to ourselves because, you know, the enemy does want us to think, you've already asked too many times, you know, that you should be, you know, like, why can't you get over this? You know, there's some things I'm like, why? I'm like, God, you have to keep on repeating and repeating. But then you begin to understand His grace in the middle of that is that He is so good to help us. And He wants to encourage us to keep trying. And the one thing I've learned even over a season of time is who I surround myself with. of people that I know that will help to bring me to the level where I can be thinking a lot more godly things, more positive things. And what we put our eyes and our attention to, you know, of the kinds of media that we're inundated with. So much media is happening, right? We're making good choices because what we're bringing in, yeah, was it when you grow up? I grew up what goes in must come out or come out. Yes, yeah. I'm like, okay, so we have to stop even bringing stuff in when it's media that we don't necessarily have to have. It's not building up my spirit. It's not making me a better person. Right. And making maybe a choice. And that was something that I, you know, at the start of the new year was really praying for the Lord because asking him for conviction on so much of what, you know, we're constantly bombarded with, like you said, what we allow into our spirits. And so I was just more intentional even about the music that I was listening to, the shows that I was watching. Um, because when you think about it, it's like after you finish a movie or you finish, you know, watching several episodes of a show, you think, how was that edifying to me? Did that really bring me to a better place? Did that, was I helping somebody else through that? And, um, That's good. And it's hard. I mean, there's sometimes you just want to unwind and you want to forget about your world. And when we can binge watch, it feels like, you know, but you're totally right. But that's the Holy Spirit helping us to prompt us. And the difference between the Holy Spirit prompting us and convicting us versus condemning. What you were talking about, too, was so powerful about... if we give in to those thoughts that there's the shame, you know, and then what does that do? It makes us really want to move away from God because we are in shame. We are, you know, embarrassed basically. Right, and that's the place that the enemy wants to keep us in, you know, that place of condemnation, that place of shame, where you feel like you can't go to the Lord. And, you know, when I've been in that place before, I'm reminded of this scripture that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. And so, you know, taking that thought captive, oh gosh, you know, the Lord, God doesn't even want anything to do with me. I've missed the mark so many times, but no, take that thought captive and replace it with nothing can separate me from the love of God. Isn't that powerful? I mean, really, when you begin to totally understand what that means for us, when you might even be feeling lonely. You know, you have an incredible, you and Hannah Waters had an incredible episode about talking about loneliness. Right. You know, sometimes our separation, sometimes in us having to part ways for our own well-being can drive us to a place where we may have to go feel like a desert. So that's a really, I would highly recommend that you locate and do a search with the iRefresh podcast and search for the loneliness episode that Casey and Hannah spoke on because it really had some great tips on how they walk through their own personal journeys and working through what do you do when you're feeling lonely. And that was really good. I enjoyed that too. So in recapping, what do you think that we want to tell our listeners today about how we can encourage each other to take in our thoughts that they would be the things that are edifying what God would have us to think and to be? Yeah, I think first and foremost, the most important thing is to realize or be intentional to notice when you get a thought. Is it a thought that lines up with the Word of God or is it a thought that doesn't? And when you know it's a thought that doesn't line up with biblical truths, immediately stop thinking about it. Do not give life to that thought by thinking it through or reasoning it. immediately replace it with the truth of God. So whether that's going back to a scripture that you've memorized, you go to a Bible app and look for a scripture to replace it with, but immediately replacing that thought with the truth of God. That's great. Well, wonderful. There's also some great nuggets of things on iRefresh.net where you can get resources of scriptures on topics, just like what Casey's talking about. There's a lot of Bible apps, but iRefresh.net has wonderful ones as well. We would love to hear from you. What do you do to have the struggles you might go through and what do you do to overcome those struggles in your thought world? because it makes a difference to how we feel about ourselves, how our emotions are. And we would like to hear that if we can pray for you or that you want to testify, be sure to follow us and subscribe on all our social media and on YouTube where you can find all the great things we've done in the past of filming to inspire you. Until then, go change your world.