Start with your thoughts
Part 10 of the series “Stairway to Heaven”
Previous posts are published on this blog.
God is not saying that you have no part in developing self-control; divine temperance comes from your focus and efforts to capture every thought and bring it into obedience to Christ.61 God allows you to make choices. This is most evident in the beginning of man’s earthly existence in the Garden of Eden.62 God created Adam and Eve, beings with a mind of their own, not two robots under His mind control living in paradise. God requires us to obey His commands in order to receive His blessings, and He gives us the choice to do so.63
“Be careful to obey all my commands so that all will go well with you and your children, because you will be doing what pleases the LORD your God.” 64
“How happy are those who fear the LORD—
all who follow his ways!
You will enjoy the fruit of your labor.
How happy you will be! How rich your life!
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine,
flourishing within your home.
And look at all those children!
There they sit around your table
as vigorous and healthy as young olive trees.
That is the LORD’s reward
for those who fear him.” 65
“Sin is manifested when you act on thoughts that are disobedient to God’s Word.” 66
“And remember, no one who wants to do wrong should ever say, ‘God is tempting me.’ God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else either. Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires. These evil desires lead to evil actions, and evil actions lead to death. So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters.” 67
Your opportunity for developing self-control is through the monitoring of your thoughts.68 Your thoughts result from the situations in which you place yourself and the information you feed your mind. What are you letting your eyes take in? Lust for more of what you see paraded in TV advertising? Decadent morals of the Hollywood stars? Lifestyles of the soap operas? Pornography of the Internet? Or are you filling your mind with the reading and listening of God’s Word?
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Praise to Our Father for the words He has given me. ~Jeff Cambridge
Written June 10, 2004
Copyright © 2004, 2005, 2016 by Jeff Cambridge, Stellar Rhema Ministry
Footnotes
All Scripture quotations unless otherwise noted are from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Verses marked NLT are Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Verses marked NIV are Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of International Bible Society. “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark office by International Bible Society.
Stairway to Heaven - 10
61. 2 Corinthians 10:5
62. Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-24
63. Deuteronomy 28:1-14; Proverbs 10:6
64. Deuteronomy 12:28 NLT
65. Psalm 128:1-4 NLT
66. Romans 7:7-25 NLT, James 1:13-16, 1 John 5:17
67. James 1:13-16 NLT
68. 2 Corinthians 10:5
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