2 Corinthians 10: 4-6
…4 The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead,
they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We tear down arguments, and
every presumption set up against the knowledge of
God; and we take captive every thought to make it
obedient to Christ. 6 And we will be ready to punish every act of
disobedience, as soon as your obedience is complete.…
Here’s the secret to temptation: Don’t fight it. Just
refocus. Whatever you resist persists.
Did you know that in the Bible, not once are you told to
resist temptation? We are told to resist the Devil, and that’s a whole
different issue. But the key to overcoming temptation is not to push back. It’s
to change your focus.
Whatever gets your attention gets you. The battle for sin
always starts in the mind. That’s why the Bible says in Psalm 119:6, “Thinking
about your commands will keep me from doing some foolish thing” (CEV).
Why? Because if you’re thinking about God’s truth, you’re not thinking about
the less important stuff.
It’s true in every single area of life — good or bad. If you
focus on godly things, it’s going to pull you that direction. If you focus on
the stuff that’s at the movies and in magazines, it’s going to pull you that
direction. Whatever you focus on gets your attention. Whatever gets your
attention is going to get you.
The key is to just change your mind.
Temptation always follows a predictable pattern: attention,
arousal, and action. Your mind gets hooked, your mind kicks in, and then you
act on it.
So you don’t fight a temptation; you just turn your mind to
something else. “We capture every thought and make it give up and obey
Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5 NCV).
The thing is, we’re not very good at capturing every thought
and turning it to Christ, because it takes lots of practice. You can’t always
control your circumstances, and you can’t even always control the way you feel.
But you can control what you think about. That’s always your choice. And if you
change the way you think, it changes the way you feel, and that will change the
way you act.
Thought for today:
Do I focus my thoughts on God and Godly things?
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