2 Corinthians 10:5 … we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,
Taking every thought captive is labor intensive. And it is repetitive.
I have to do this repeatedly. My emotions are all over the place. When I am down, negative thoughts attach themselves to my feelings of despair. These bombard my perception. I hate to continually use the word perception, as I know that it bothers some. Are not all thoughts, emotion, and sensations various aspects of perceptions?
When I am down, I fight self criticism after self criticism. The feeling of despair strengthens and subside. But one after another I try to take them captive. If I do not labor in this I wallow in self hatred. I know that these are physically caused, but they manifest in the deepest part of my being. Like a hand squeezing my chest and ultimately my heart. This happens often. When I refuse to affirm those invalid self criticisms they disapate. The physical feelings do not. The pain is still there, and so yet another self criticism attaches itself to my despair. This is labor not to wallow in a suicidal convergence of physical discomfort and self hatred, even when I know the accusations are without substance.