What you put in your mind has an effect on what you think and how you act. Crosswalk.com has several suggestions for taking every thought captive.
Writer, Richard Ganz compiled the suggestions. Here are a few…
Accept responsibility for your thoughts. You have the ability to exercise control over your thoughts. God warned Cain to focus his mind on the right things, but Cain chose to think about the wrong things – anger and jealousy – which led to his murderous actions.
Your mind – not just your behavior – must change. God calls us to change sinful behavior that does not honor and please Him. Instead of focusing on your outward behavior, work on disciplining your mind – from which the behaviors stem.
Think through your problems rather than just react to them. When you experience difficult challenges, you can react to them and think yourself into despair every time. Or you can look forward to the next opportunity and ask yourself what you learned from this failure.
Take your disabling thoughts captive through confession. Paul urges us to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”. Confront your disabling thoughts. Turn them over to God and become who He sees you can be.
Choose to focus your thoughts on the right things. We are to think about those things that are “true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable”. When we think on those things, God promises to give us His peace. It takes personal discipline and commitment.