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Cast Down Imaginations


My mind is taking me back to a time when I was a little girl and went to visit my grandfather’s church. Granddaddy Frank was the pastor of a holiness church. For those of you that don’t know, holiness churches believe in the laying of hands and speaking in tongues. This was my first trip to such a church. Grandfather stood and he preached the Word. At alter call, I remember crying but I didn’t know why I was crying. The tears just rolled down my face and I couldn’t stop them. At the time, I didn’t realize that God was all over me. There was a woman, a dark skin woman, that came over to pray over me. But, because I had never been to a church like it and I had never seen anything like it, I was scared. So when this beautiful smiling woman came to me, I clung to my mother knowing not what this woman wanted of me. My mother being a true mama bear put her self between me and this woman and told her that I was scared. This woman of God told my mother that she just wanted to pray for me. And my mother again told her no. My grandmother, Maggie, seeing what was happening came over and told the woman that she had it. My grandmother was also a mama bear. She prayed for me but not in a way that scared me.

What that woman saw that day would be manifested in my life many, many years later. At the age of 30, I accepted God into my life, into my heart. I remember going into my home church, City of Refuge in Manassas, VA, with the best that I had to wear. It was a short black skirt with a split on the right side and it fit my hips. Thankfully there were people in the church that saw in me that day the same that the woman had seen all those years ago. They judged me not by the clothes I had on but by the spirit that they saw within me. With open arms and minds, my household was welcomed into God’s house. I thank God daily for sending me to a place where there were people present who knew that I was more than my clothes. While the entire church didn’t welcome me, there were enough people present that did.

2 Corinthians 10:5 (KJV) "Casting down all imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;"

As a people of God, we must realize that what we imagine of people is not always true. If those welcome arms and hands had not been there all those years ago, can you imagine how much longer I would’ve run from God? Casting down our imaginations means that we rely not on what we see but we use the eyes of God toward His people.

Judge not His people for He is Judge and Jury. Allow God to use you to love His people His way. Open your hearts, minds, arms to those who need it no matter what you think you see. Use your spiritual eye to discern whom they are. When He tells you to love one, then love them. When He tells you to leave one behind, leave them. Be obedient to His will and His way.

Be a Blessing and not just Blessed!

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