Romans 12:1-3 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
Ephesians 4:22-24 ...that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
As is often the case - simple to state and difficult to put into practice. Most of our failures (let's use the right terms - sin) starts in the mind. This is especially true for addicts. I have heard of something called "the 3-second rule" in regards to this. The idea being that if you spend 3 seconds thinking about a particular temptation, you are almost assured of following through. The trick is to discipline your mind so that when the temptation comes, you deflect your thoughts to other areas.
There is no magic pill - no silver bullet. It is a matter of practice and the developing of new patterns and habits. It is the result of constant failure followed by a renewed determination. It means surrendering your will, your heart and your mind to God. It takes changing what you look at, what you listen to and where your mind spends it's idle time.
I will let you know how I do :o)
1 comment:
You are right dad, there is no magic pill. But renewing our minds also means that we are replacing the old with the new. The new being the living word of God. It is only by the Spirit and God's word that our minds can be renewed. What better way to fight temptation then how Jesus did, by memorizing Scripture so that when temptation arises, so does the scripture to refute it.
I know that the passages which have helped me the most when faced with temptation are the following:
2 Cor. 10v4-5 "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. ON the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we TAKE CAPTIVE EVERY THOUGHT TO MAKE IT OBEDIENT TO CHRIST."
Phil 4v8 "Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."
Blessings on your day daddy-o
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