The teaching addresses a topic that many people know all too well: a whirlwind of thoughts and worries, when thoughts queue up and fill the whole day and often the night as well. It puts into words how thoughts can circle round in your head like cars at a traffic light that never turns green, and how this can drain your energy, steal your joy and stand in the way of the life with God that you actually long for. The teaching describes a ‘thought queue’ as recurring thoughts following specific patterns, which pop up again and again, often on the same themes and with the same worries. The teacher here explains how these thoughts can feel completely uncontrollable, and how one may feel they have tried everything to push them away, only to find that they return with full force shortly afterwards, and that the despondency and frustration quietly grow.
To make it more concrete, the whirlwind of thoughts is divided into a number of typical ‘thought categories’ that many people will be able to recognise in themselves. The first concerns one’s own performance and mistakes: thoughts such as “did I do well enough?”, “should I have said something else?”, “was this completely wrong?” at work, within the family, at church and in all relationships. The next category concerns worries about the future: “What am I going to do now?”, “What about my job?”, “What about my finances?”, “What if my health fails me?” and “Where am I going with my life?” In addition, there is the constant brooding over the past, where one goes round in circles with thoughts like “I should never have said that”, “if only I’d done something different” and slowly piling guilt and shame on top of the whirlwind of thoughts, so that one both wears oneself down and loses one’s joy.
There is also talk of a queue of thoughts about what others think of you – social anxieties, embarrassing situations, clothes, appearance, status – where even small things can be blown out of proportion and take up an unreasonable amount of space in your mind. Another prominent category is work and practical tasks: laundry, to-do lists, deadlines, responsibilities and the fear of forgetting something important. It is mentioned here that many people, particularly women, experience a constant internal list that never empties, and where the brain is almost never allowed to rest. There is talk of self-worth and identity, where one compares oneself with others, their education, homes, possessions, success, and sees one’s own resources as ‘too little’, and then there are health-related thoughts, where every little pain or signal in the body can lead to a fear of serious illness, and where one repeatedly goes through the worst-case scenario in one’s mind.
Another group of thoughts concerns existential questions: doubts about faith, about whether one is truly saved, about whether God likes one, about whether one has done so much wrong that God must have turned away. At the same time, the turmoil of the world weighs heavily: wars, natural disasters, diseases, vaccines and everything the media is pumping out. It is acknowledged that many of the problems are real, such as the war in the Middle East or in Ukraine, but it is also pointed out that worry in itself does not prolong life; on the contrary, it can shorten life and lower quality of life. It describes how, for some, it becomes so overwhelming that they can hardly fall asleep, that they wake up with their minds racing, and that joy slowly seeps out of life because worries take up more and more space.
Against this backdrop, a reading is taken from 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 3–5, where Paul writes: ‘For though we live in the world, we do not wage war with the weapons of the world. Our weapons are not of the world, but are powerful through God to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.” This verse is explained as a key to understanding that the battle against a whirlwind of thoughts and worries is not merely about “thinking positively”, but about a spiritual battle involving actual strongholds in the mind – trains of thought and arguments that have been allowed to build up over time, often based on lies about God, about ourselves and about the future.
[bible](https://www.bible.com/da/bible/20/2CO.10.BPH)
We delve into the words Paul uses and their probable meanings: “thought structures” are understood as trains of thought or lines of reasoning, where one takes a single thought (“it’s bound to go wrong”), linking it to another (“then I’ll lose my job and my home”), on to a third (“then I won’t be able to support my family”) and ending in a grand conclusion that doesn’t hold water at all, but now feels very real because one has made the sequence “make sense”. It is explained that when Paul speaks of taking every thought captive, he is using the image of a prisoner of war or a seizure: something that is captured and removed so that it can no longer dictate the course of the battle. The image is used to say that we cannot simply passively hope that thoughts will disappear; we must actively “arrest” them, bring them to Jesus and let Him have the final say.
The teaching describes it as a military strategy, not as a soft, fluffy “if you feel like it”. If the enemy is to be taken captive, it requires someone to take action. This means consciously asking yourself: Do I want to continue worrying, or do I want to make a choice that worry shall not be allowed to be my normal state of mind? It is said that worries can almost feel a bit “cosy”, because they provide something to talk about, something to fill conversations with, and something to complain about together. We are therefore challenged to look honestly at whether we have, in reality, become a bit “friendly” with our worries, and whether we actually want to let them go, or whether we hold on to them because they feel safe and familiar.
Once you have made the choice not to live in worry, it is made clear that this is not the same as shirking responsibility. A distinction is drawn between healthy planning and unhealthy worry: It is good and necessary to think one step ahead, make realistic plans, and take responsibility for finances, work and family, but this must be done without the constant fear, pressure and inner alarm that drain the mind. Worry is described as a door being opened to the enemy, through which the devil can then pile more and more on top, because one has already accepted ‘a little worry’. That is why we are urged to shut the door completely, rather than thinking “I’m only worrying a little bit”.
An important question is also posed: Who is the general in your inner army? Do you listen to the supreme general – Jesus – or do you listen mostly to the “rank and file”, that is, other people’s opinions, gossip, social media, the news and your own thought patterns? It is pointed out that many let “the rank and file” set the tone, so that everything from loose rumours to other people’s bad moods is allowed to define how one feels, whilst Jesus’ words about who we are and who He is carry far less weight. It is argued that Jesus’ words about you must carry more weight than your own anxious thoughts and other people’s comments if a real shift is to take place.
The teaching refers to Romans chapter 12 on renewing the mind and encourages us to read the first verses ourselves, and then we read further on in Philippians chapter 4, where Paul writes: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I say again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all people. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable— everything that is virtuous and worthy of praise – set your minds on these things”. It is emphasised that “rejoice” is in the imperative form and “always” means always, even when you are not having a “good day”.
From here, the train of thought links directly to worship and focus: When worries arise, the task is not simply to say “don’t think about it”, but to actively choose to rejoice in the Lord, to remind oneself of who God is, what He has done, and what promises He has given. We are encouraged to turn things around by telling our problems how great God is, rather than telling God how big our problems are. It is not about denying reality, but about seeing reality in the light of the fact that God is greater. It is pointed out that where God’s peace is allowed to fill us, worry cannot dominate, and that it is therefore a battle for focus and perspective.
The teaching also touches on our fundamental perspective: Do we view life from a self-centred perspective, where everything revolves around me, what I feel, what I have or haven’t received, and how I appear in the eyes of others? Or do we view life from a desire to please God, to live for Him and be accountable to Him rather than to human opinions? It is pointed out that when one seeks first and foremost to please God, it becomes much easier to let go of many of the people-centred worries, because it is no longer about satisfying everyone’s expectations, but about being faithful to what God says.
There is also a warning against constructing your own ‘homemade’ version of God and Jesus in your mind if you do not wish to live according to what the Bible actually says. If you only pick out the parts of the Bible that feel comfortable, and fill in the rest with your own ideas about what God “probably thinks”, you end up in a deception where you believe in “your own version of Jesus”, which is not the Jesus that Scripture reveals. This ties in with the train of thought that many worries and distorted images of God stem precisely from the fact that one has not allowed God’s Word to be the supreme authority, but has allowed emotions, traditions and random thoughts to define one’s image of God.
Finally, it all ties in with the parable of the sower and the teaching that those sown among thistles are those who hear the word, but where “the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, so that it bears no fruit”. It is emphasised that worries are not merely irritating – they choke the word in our lives, so that faith does not turn into action, and the fruit fails to appear. Emphasis is placed on the fact that it is not enough merely to hear the word; we must also be doers of the word and act on what we have heard, otherwise we may be in danger of having been busy with worries and activities without bearing fruit that pleases God. The teaching concludes with a clear call to take worries and racing thoughts seriously as something to be fought against, not merely endured, and to consciously take captive every thought to Christ, renewing our minds with God’s Word, choosing joy in the Lord, and allowing God’s peace and focus on His will to fill us more than the voices that try to pull us away.
[The Bible Society](https://www.bibelselskabet.dk/brugbibelen/bibelenonline/matt/7)
Quote from the teaching: You cannot simply sit back and hope that the whirlwind of thoughts will disappear; you must take every thought captive and surrender it to Jesus, so that it is He and not worry that is in control.
Relevant keywords: racing thoughts – stream of thoughts – worries and faith – taking thoughts captive – 2 Corinthians 10 – Philippians 4 – renewing the mind – Christian mental health – peace in God – worry and trust – reverence for God – bearing spiritual fruit – everyday discipleship – focus on Jesus – spiritual battle in the mind
