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Anchor Thoughts to Scripture: Gain Victory

Monday, April 16th, 2012

anchor-thoughts-to-scripture

I’m not allowed to think whatever I want. My thoughts are where sin begins. So control over my lips begins when I anchor my thoughts to Scripture. This means that I will take my thoughts captive and run them through Philippians 4:8.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philillians 4:8 ESV)

Anchor Thoughts to Scripture: Gain Victory

All of life must be anchoring my thoughts to Scripture, but especially when I know my thoughts are sin:

  • a complaining spirit
  • selfishness
  • wanting others to do my will (manipulation)
  • negative thoughts about someone (always becomes slander)
  • thinking of ways people have wronged me (holding a grudge)
  • not resting (striving)
  • hopelessness and despair (usually demonic or hormonal)
  • feeling like I’ll never gain victory over specific sin
  • stressing out over circumstances beyond my control
  • wanting to take matters into my own hands (not trusting God)

In each circumstance, Scripture alone can expose and disarm sin. Become aware that my mind has a doorway, and not to dwell on anything that will feed my sin. Stop, throw out the thought, and quote a Scripture that directly addresses it.

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How Confession of Sin Affects Prayer

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

confession-of-sin

Maybe your prayer times are boring because you don’t feel like you’re connecting to God. This might actually be the case; maybe you’re not imagining that God isn’t hearing you. He might, in fact, not be hearing you.

Confession of sin is a prerequisite for prayer to be heard by God. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” (Psalm 66:18) If you have unconfessed sin in your life, you might as well not pray if you don’t want to repent, since that time will be wasted. Don’t pretend to pray if you don’t care about holiness in your life. God is holy, and the only way to have communion with Him is to get rid of sin.

So how do you do that? What if you don’t know if you’ve sinned or not? If you ask God to please show you your sin, and then you’re quiet and open your heart, God will show your sin to you. At that point you can repent, and you will be able to have communion with God. To repent is to be sorry, and to ask God to help you stop doing it. Repent means to desire to turn the opposite direction. There is no reason for you to be disconnected from the heart of God. All of us can have sweet and delirious access to God, where He is able to lead us because we are sensitive to His Spirit.

The other thing about confession of sin is that God commands us to confess our sins to one another, that we may be healed. (James 5:16) Why on earth does God command us to humiliate ourselves to other sinful humans? So that we can love each other with all humility. If I confess my sin to you today, then you pray for me and hold me accountable. Then tomorrow when you confess your sin to me, I cannot hold you in contempt. Why? Because you know my sin. Nobody is on a pedestal. Nobody is glorified but God. When I gain victory over sin, you feel happy and rejoice with me, because YOU are responsible (partially) for praying for me, so you get rewarded spiritually.

Meanwhile, if another friend stumbles, both you and I have hearts that hurt for our friend, and we help that person, and eventually that person is victorious. We rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, because we are truly woven together as a family in the body of Christ. There is depth to our interactions with each other.

Imagine how much unity we would have in the body of Christ if we stopped trying to bring glory to ourselves, but instead confessed sin and ONLY brought glory to God? We would lift each other up before God and love each other for real. I highly recommend women do this only with women, and men with men, unless it’s your spouse, or unless you’ve invited the whole family over to dinner, so you use your spiritual gifts with each other as families.

The body of Christ would be woven together, with each person using their spiritual gift, and no one lording it over anyone else because everyone struggles with sin. All of us are trapped in the flesh and need prayer. If we let no one in, that is a recipe for disaster, a recipe for becoming entrenched in habitual sin that is much harder to get rid of, a stronghold. Strongholds wouldn’t be allowed to take hold if we were all humble enough to obey the verse to confess sin to one another. Instead, we disobey the verse because we want to look good to others, glorifying ourselves.

Let’s bring glory to God. We are not great. God is.

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Posted in Prayer | 4 Comments »

Hoarding Money

Thursday, March 15th, 2012

hoarding-money“I don’t give a flip about the poor. I think they are lazy frauds that beg off people just to go buy booze. Why on earth should I help them?” I declared to my husband.

After doing a Beth Moore Bible study on the book of James, I was aghast at how many Scriptures command us to help the poor. Helping the poor is something commanded by Jesus, James, and tons of other Scriptures. I was floored and horrified because I have never heard a sermon about helping the poor, and I don’t care one whit about them. What is wrong with my hardened heart?

(Here are some verses about helping the poor: Exodus 22:21-27, Leviticus 19:9-10, Leviticus 25:35-38, Deuteronomy 14:28-29, Deuteronomy 15:7-11, Deuteronomy 24:17-22, 1 Samuel 2:7, Nehemiah 5:6-13, Psalm 12:5, Psalm 112:5, Proverbs 14:21, Proverbs 14:31, Proverbs 17:5, Proverbs 19:17, Proverbs 22:16, Proverbs 28:8, Proverbs 28:27, Isaiah 3:14, Isaiah 58:5-7, Isaiah 61:1-2, Ezekiel 18:5-9, Amos 5:11, Matthew 19:21, Luke 6:34-35, 38, Luke 14:12-14, Galatians 2:10, James 2:1-7, Revelation 3:17.)

As I was reading the book of James, I was convicted that we live “in luxury and in self-indulgence” in this country, and meanwhile other believers are working hard and don’t have enough to feed their families. In the body of Christ, we ought to fill each other’s needs instead of overpampering ourselves. My husband has the gift of giving. If he sees a need, he automatically fills the need of the other person. I am not talking about professional beggars that are liars. What I’m talking about is interconnecting with other believers in the body of Christ, whether at a local church, or with other homeschoolers, or with friends. These people aren’t lazy and shouldn’t be lumped in with frauds.

I do NOT believe the poor should get help from the government (aside from not having to pay taxes), because then they feel a sense of entitlement and demand it, and the majority stop working. That’s sin. If someone doesn’t work, neither shall he eat. (II Thessalonians 3:10) If someone doesn’t provide for his family, he is worse than an unbeliever. (I Timothy 5:8) But if someone is working hard and still can’t feed his children, and you know about it and do nothing, you are guilty of sin. Read James 2:15-17: “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” God says your faith is dead if you see someone in need (for real), and you don’t help them.

We enjoy hoarding and piling up all of our money at the bank. There is nothing wrong with being rich, since Abraham was rich, and so was Job, and they were both godly people. But both Abraham and Job gave to other people and didn’t just hoard it to amass riches.

This whole idea of hoarding money reminds me of the man in Scripture who had full granaries and worked super hard to become rich, only to have his soul required of him that very night. “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'” (Luke 12:20)

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Posted in Church, Creative Finances | 6 Comments »

How to Overcome Temptation

Monday, March 5th, 2012

how-to-overcome-temptation

I was sitting one morning with my coffee, looking out the window, praying, when my daughter came and sat beside me in the dark.

She blurted out, “I’m glad you put the nutcracker away. When I saw it in the living room, I wanted to play with it. When you weren’t looking, I played with it until it broke.”

“You should learn how to overcome temptation. Just because you see something doesn’t mean you have to do it. Just think of something else, and you will take your mind off it,” I replied.

“What if I can’t think of anything else?”

“There are millions of things to think about. I’m sure you can think of something, like oceans or monkeys.” My daughter giggled at the thought of monkeys.

Whenever I recognize a temptation, I just throw out the thought and replace it with another thought. Better yet, put your mind on Christ. This is how you take every thought captive.

Later I talked to my husband about my conversation with my daughter, and he said, “Another good way to resist temptation is to go away from the temptation.” He then proceeded to tell me about a study that was done, where children were put into a room with a large present, and they were told that what was inside was wonderful. Then the adult left the room, and the child was alone with the present. In almost every case, the child couldn’t resist temptation and ripped open the present to see what was inside. But there were the few, the one or two percent, who were able to resist temptation. What did they do? One of the children started singing to distract herself. Another little girl got her chair and turned it around so that the present was behind her, so she wouldn’t have to look at the temptation. I found this study very interesting.

There is always a way out of temptation, so that we don’t have to sin: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (I Corinthians 10:13) This has nothing to do with horrible things that happen to us that are beyond our ability to endure: “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.” (II Corinthians 1:8) If the apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says that God gives us trials that are beyond our ability to endure, then he’s not talking about temptation.

Don’t ever feel that you have to give in to temptation. You don’t. Or if you start to sin, you can stop abruptly. You don’t have to continue sinning once you realize you’re sinning.

“Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” II Corinthians 10:5

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Posted in Christian Living, Parenting | 12 Comments »

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