THE BEST SPIRITUAL WAY TO FIGHT TEMPTATION

[Gordon 7]

A couple of days ago I was tempted to watch a high-risk movie. I had seen it years ago and enjoyed it. I chose not to go to war with this thought. Instead, I thought: “I think I can handle this.” Now it is a couple of days later, I did turn from sinful scenes in the movie, but life has been blah ever since, and my joy has disappeared. Why has my joy disappeared?

1 God was probably unhappy with my choice.​

2 God certainly did not watch it with me.​

3 If God did not watch it with me, then the Light that I had got turned off.​

4 The old saying, “Garbage in garbage out” is very true.​

Second, watching what our flesh wants, and thinking the way our flesh wants, kills our joy at the least. At the most, it drags us right back to our habit.

Third, satan promotes the “This is what I want” thought pattern. Instead, fight back.

Fourth, wisdom asks, “What does God want?”

Fifth, quitting protocol says: If my eyes and thoughts are filled with garbage, my temptations will increase and increase.

Sixth, repent. Consider praying:

“Father, I am sorry for watching _____, or for thinking ______. Help me to remember to work on the habit of turning from wrong images and thoughts.

Seventh, God is my miracle. He has given me a chance at a great life. How often will I forget and look at other things, think about wrong things, and chase wrong things.

Eighth, consider starting a list of better things to watch, and better things to think about (I have old articles on this topic).

Finally, My goal is to say 500 times this week, “God is my miracle and my pleasure. My goal is to think right, keep my eyes pure, live right, and try to see if I can be more involved in the great life God has planned for me.

When Biblical David fiddled with sin... Disaster. When he lived right, God was his miracle. His joy, pleasure, and complete purpose.

This article was based in part on this great music video. Consider adding it to your playlist.

 

[Gordon 7]

A daily encounter with God will change you more than anything else.

When God led the children of Israel out of the wilderness, where His Presence went, His power went. Where God's Presence goes, His power flows.

God wants to have a personal relationship with you.

Next, daily encounters with God are intentional.

Many of us prioritize our schedule. Instead, we should schedule our prioritizes.

The Bible says to “Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.” If you don't make it a priority to encounter God, you will not encounter Him.

The best antidote for living in a secret sin is to learn to have a secret place where you will seek God until you encounter Him.

You are always carrying something. Either the pressure of a problem, or the power of His presence.

When you carry God's presence your feet become conduits for God's power. The weight of His presence on your shoulders becomes the force of His power on your walk.

Second, only about 10% of Christians really believe that if they keep on praying until the presence of the Lord is on them... Then, their problems will start to be solved. What I say is, try it. First fully repent of your past sins. Second, start working on your plan for change, then, seek the Lord until His presence is on you.

Third, often His presence will be on you if you keep at it. But, sometimes, you are determined to pray, and you just don't make progress. That happened to me today. So I found a great Christian video on YouTube. That great video inspired this article. It also helped me find the presence of God.

Finally, you are going to carry something, you might as well trade in carrying that problem for carrying God's presence.

 

[Gordon 7]

We have things that we do “in excess” that may be connections to addiction. Things like drinking, gambling, risky TV/movies, friends that are a bad influence, and 100 other things. If I picked something you do that upsets you. Please forgive me. Things that I do are similar to what you do. Consider praying:

“Father, show me what I do that is a connection.”

Second, life batters us on some days or weeks. When we don't turn aggressively to God, to praising God, to giving thanks even in tough times, we are making a connection because of what we didn't do. Consider praying:

“Father, help me to never give up. Help me to trust in You.”

Often when we are battered in life, that is when we learn the most, grow the most, get filled with the Holy Spirit the most. When life gets hard, and we keep fighting a strange thing happens. We read an article (that we saved or printed out) for the 11th time. We tried to do what is said 10 times and failed every time. But we try yet again.

Now... we are giving God plenty of space to help us. We patiently wait with full belief that His way is right. That life will turn around soon if we turn to Him. Consider praying:

“Father, help me to remember to turn to You when life gets tough.”

When we always insist on trying to be in God's will when life gets tough, we will be right on the verge of understanding how to quit for good.

 

[Gordon 7]

Joy is found when we do things exactly God's way. If you struggle with lust, constantly pray prayers about what the Bible says “To do.” The Bible says to run from lust. Pray constantly about running, think constantly about running from lust. The Bible says to be content. To be content with clean TV show, content with looking at nature instead of some temptation, to be content with thinking clean thoughts instead of evil fantasy thoughts. Consider praying:

“Father, help me to turn-from-lust, and help me to be content.”

What is your goal for how often you will pray this prayer? Remember, with every prayer you must be completely sincere with a full desire to change.

Second, the Bible says “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

Do you want to “live?” We find joy and life by focusing on the Bible. We find joy and life by changing daily so that we can do what it says.

Third, how will you make your access to temptation harder?

Fourth, have a written plan of what you will do instead. Remember, you want to have a great joyful productive year. That will only happen if you gain habits of doing other things.

Finally, what two habits will you work on daily to promote your change? How will you remind yourself to do them daily?

New habits start us on a path toward joy.

 

[Gordon 7]

2 Peter 2:20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.”

This verse is saying that if we keep going back, our life will keep getting worse.

Wisdom is memorizing this verse.

Wisdom is reminding yourself constantly that you don't want to be worse off.

Wisdom is reading this verse every day.

Second, many quit because they keep reading many articles per day, they keep reading scripture daily, they keep praying quitting prayers.

Third, many say: “I will read a quitting article daily.”

My comment to those only willing to spend a few minutes working on quitting daily is:

“Memorize this verse.”

Fourth, based on this verse you can't spend too much time working on quitting. Well... unless you are okay will your life getting worse.

 

[Gordon 7]

Smart-phones will shape our thoughts, emotions, and our faith if we allow them to. They sometimes cause relationships to suffer.

When we search on our phones, YouTube, and computers, we either choose to go up as Christians, or go down as Christians. I personally worked endlessly, and continue to work on preparing for what I will search for, and for what I will choose to watch. Two points:

What will I not watch. I will not watch anything that even remotely starts to trigger my habit. Consider forming the habit of “Turning instantly” from anything that might be a trigger. Consider praying:

“Father, help me to work constantly on the habit of turning instantly from triggers on my devices, and triggers everywhere.”

Second, satan wants to gain control over us through lust. When we turn instantly from lust on our devices, we slam the door shut on his increased control. Sin leads to sin. Out of control lust leads to drugs, gambling, shopping, wait, I don't have time to finish this list. It leads to 500 bad habits. Consider praying:

“Father, help me to turn instantly from lust.”

Third, people say, “I don't know what to do to quit.” Consider saying these two prayers about 10,000 times each (Each time we must be completely sincere with a 100% desire to change).

Fourth, consider searching “verses lust” so many times that it starts to auto-fill when you put in the v. It works. Or “Verses ______” (insert your habit of choice).

Fifth, if satan has your eyes he will have your mind.

Matthew 6:22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is [a]good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is [b]bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

If you want to be dark (Code word for depressed) look constantly at sin and wrong things. If you want to start down the road toward joy, consider learning the habit of turning from sin.

What does “Full of Light mean?” It means filled with Jesus to such an extent that we are filled with purpose and joy.

What habits will you commit to learning to start down that great road?

 

[Gordon 7]

The Bible says to think about things that are of good report. Every minute of every day we get to choose... Think about bad things, job problems, school problems, money problems, or, we can go out of our way to find something good to think about. This is a great exercise for quitting addictions, because this is very similar to a key habit for quitting, “Learning to think about new things instead of old habits.” Consider praying:

“Father, help me to think about positive things only.”

Let's say you have a problem you need to solve. Decide how many minutes you will spend trying to solve the problem, then when the time is up, think about good things instead.

Second, we should develop habits of thinking about positive behaviors. Things like, “I will watch clean TV, I will eat/drink moderately, I will read the Bible today, I will pray today, I will stay busy today. Consider writing down a few positive behaviors you should be thinking about.

Third, focus on a good attitude. Bad attitudes lead back toward bad habits. Good attitudes give us a chance.

Finally, all of these things are gold for stopping bad habits. Consider making it a goal to form habits of thinking about things that are of good report.