Do you ever find yourself having conversations with yourself that lead to nowhere good? Thoughts that overwhelm, or are negative, speculative, or just plain figments that you have conjured up out of nowhere? Yep, me too. And these thoughts take lots of energy that would be better spent elsewhere - in prayer interceding for others or just putting my brain on hold for a while.
I knew that 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us that we are to "take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ," but I wasn't exactly sure HOW to do that. So I prayed about it...I asked God to show me what exactly that meant for me. And He did! I very clearly, in my mind, saw the image of a cookie jar or something like a canister. I knew in my heart that the Lord was telling me to take that thought - negative, false, or otherwise, and to take the lid of the jar, put the thought inside and put the lid back on tightly and to focus on something else.
So, that is exactly what I have been doing for a couple of months now. Whenever I find myself chewing on a thought or going down a path that is not productive, I simply imagine myself placing the thought in the jar and putting on the lid. Sometimes I just think,"Cooke Jar Lord!" And it's working! I probably have a dozen or so jars now...but when I fill them, I just mentally give the entire jar to the Lord. This little mental trick has brought a new focus this year...and the bonus is that it allows me NOT to focus on myself but on others and on Christ. How about you? Do you need your own cookie jar?
