Thursday June 30, 2011

Read 2 Peter 3:1-2

A Christian man is building a table in his garage. He hits his thumb with the hammer and yells out an expletive. He swears like a trooper in no uncertain terms. Unfortunately this is his regular habit when things go wrong or when he bangs his thumb. Can he change? Can he relearn new habits? Can he have victory?

As we’ve seen already, to be victorious we need a strategy. Remember that soccer team that started thinking about a strategy as the game was about to start?  God Himself gives us a strategy in the battle for the mind. Read vs 2. See the strategy? It’s about recalling or remembering Scripture. Recalling Scripture to mind is a great way to help yourself gain wholesome thoughts.

Years ago I sat an exam that I made up for myself. I challenge you to do it now. Back then I failed. I pray you won’t. I challenged myself to write down 10 verses of Scripture.  Can you do that? Try it now! Get a piece of paper, a pen and stop to write down 10 verses of Scripture.

How did you go? It’s not as easy as it looks. We need to be filling our head with the Bible, the Word of God so that we can always be asking ourselves ‘What does God think of this?’ When we see an inappropriate scene on the TV we can ask ourselves ‘What does God think of this?’ If we know the Bible we can answer quickly. (Make sure to turn the TV off or fast forward the inappropriate bit - you don’t need to watch it to consider what God thinks!!).  When a team scores because they cheated, what does God think? When you are made a tempting offer, what does God think? When you get a pay rise, what does God think?  When I say ask yourself this question I’m not suggesting that you give a sort  answer like ‘It’s evil’ but give that kind of answer with a Scripture verse to back up what your answer. “It’s evil because the Word of God says….”.

By asking yourself this question constantly throughout the day you are deliberately recalling Scripture. You are deliberately taking every thought captive and making every thought obedient to Christ.  You are training yourself to think in godly ways. You are being renewed in your mind and you are ceasing to act and think in accord with the pattern of this world.

If our eager builder were to use this strategy I suspect he’d see rapid change in his swearing habits.  But more on that tomorrow. Stay tuned. Same bat time. Same bat channel.

Prayer:

V Pray for Pastor James Musa Rike with the resent passing of his wife Dune and  for their 13 year old daughter Sum involved in an Islamic extremist attack.

V Pray for the victims of the Islamic Extremist attack on churches in Cairo, Egypt.