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"If you have any excuses talking you out of changing, capture those wrong thoughts and replace them with truth."

A thought by Craig Groeschel, from his book, The Christian Atheist: When You Believe in God But Live as if He Doesn’t Exist (p. 136). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Is there something about you that you know you need to change but you are making all of these excuses about why you can’t so you don’t?  So, do you need to change? 

Craig says, “Paul said, ‘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 (2 Cor. 10: 5). Grab any thought contrary to God’s, overtake it, and replace it with truth.

He goes on, “When you are tempted to think, Both of my parents are heavy, so I’ll always struggle with my weight, stop. Remind yourself that you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength (Phil. 4: 13). With God’s help, you can lose weight. You think I’m just not good with money. I’ll always be in debt. Capture that and instead say, God is teaching me to be faithful with all I have. I am not what I have. I am who God says I am. One day I’ll be totally debt-free (Luke 16: 10; Rom. 13: 8). You catch yourself thinking, Some people are positive people. I’m not. I’m just naturally critical and negative. That’s not true. Instead, remind yourself that you have the mind of Christ. God is renewing your mind daily (1 Cor. 2: 16; Rom. 12: 2). When you feel bad about yourself and start sliding into those all-too-familiar thoughts, remember that if you follow Christ, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives inside of you (Rom. 8: 9 – 11). You are created in God’s image (Gen. 1: 27). He knew you before you were born (Ps. 139: 13 – 16). He has grand designs for you, great works that he planned in advance for you to do (Eph. 2: 10).”

Craig then says, “If you’re not dead, you’re not done. God still has something important for you to do. These truths alone make you important. You can change. Capture wrong thoughts and replace them with truth. Can the excuses. If you keep making excuses, you’re insulting God’s power. With God, all things are possible— even the thing that you think isn’t.”

So, would you quit insulting his power, quit making excuses and let him begin to make the change that he wants to make in you?  Would you?


Yes, yes!
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