Unshakable Faith
Day 28: The Deception
1. Are you resisting sin by controlling your eyes?
Yes! I remember as a child learning the song "Oh, be careful little eyes what you see!" And as I've matured over the years I am realizing just how true that song is...The things we look at, watch, and allow into our lives through movies, t.v., internet, magazines, books we read...everything we do has an effect on us. The question is, are we watching, reading, and looking at things that will lead to sin, or are we watching, reading and looking at things that will make us more like Christ? If our God given purpose is Christ-likeness, which I believe it is! Then we need to be careful of what we allow our eyes to see!
2. What is the difference between understanding the schemes of the devil, but resisting the temptation to understand the depths of evil?
We can know the schemes of the devil, which helps us to recognize sin for what it is and to make right decisions. But the temptation to understand the depths of evil, opens us up for more sin. We do not need to know everything about sin, once we know it as something we should keep ourselves from, we need to do just that...getting involved just to say you have the knowledge of what it really is, opens the door for further temptation. If Eve had seen Satan's scheme and had turned away instead of sticking around to find out more info, she might have saved herself and her husband and everyone from the sinful nature we all are born with because of the fall.
3. Have you learned to discipline yourself and your thoughts?
Yes, I have learned to discipline myself and my thoughts. When I was younger I used to always put myself down...constantly I was saying things like "I'm so stupid." or "I can't do anything right." just little put downs that I never even realized I was doing, until I started dating my husband...JC quickly realized the damage I was doing to myself, by not disciplining my thoughts and words. So. he started calling me on it every time he heard me say something negative about myself, and then he would make me come up with and say out loud something positive. It only took a couple months of reprogramming myself and disciplining myself this way to notice a huge change in my self-confidence.
The same principle applies to our thoughts, not only about ourselves, but about our relationships, our jobs, our finances, our church, our children....everything! We need to think on the positive, wholesome, good things...we need to focus on our blessings and on how God is working it out for good. We need to refocus on God, not on the circumstance, and soon the circumstance will not be as bad as we think it is, and we will see that God is at work in ways we never imagined.
