Taking Every Thought Captive

The idea that a person has power over his own thoughts is a concept that is hard for some to fathom. If one can gain control over the thoughts that run through the mind, possibilities are endless. Jesus Christ had this power. Jesus used this skill in John 9:1-4 when the disciples inquired about a man who was blind from birth. They asked, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus responded saying, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Jesus used only the facts; the disciples jumped to conclusions. If the disciples had used concrete facts, such as in Ezekiel 18:20, they would have never made an assumption like that. Another flawed way of thinking that the disciples used in the story of the blind man involved filtering out the positive in order to point out the negative. Jesus was able to find the positive in every situation. He said this man was blind “…that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Heaven’s reward fallacy was a thinking error used by the disciples. Back then, as well as today, people make the assumption that bad things don’t happen to good people. The disciples believed that if this man wasn’t a sinner then he would not have been blind. Looking back to the book of Job, we understand “heaven’s reward fallacy” to be a false concept and a flawed way of thinking. Becoming an accurate thinker takes time and commitment. Though modeling oneself after the perfection of Jesus is not an easy task, the end result will be well worth the effort.