Bad Thoughts – Good Thoughts “Some will say they cannot help having bad thoughts; that may be, but the question is, do they hate them or not? Vain thoughts will knock at the door, but we must not open to them. Though sinful thoughts rise, they must not reign. He who turns a morsel over and over in his mouth, does so because he likes the flavor, and he who meditates upon evil, loves it, and is ripe to commit it. Snails leave their slime behind them, and so do vain thoughts. Good thoughts are blessed guests, and should be heartily welcomed, well fed, and much sought after. Like rose leaves, they give out a sweet smell if laid up in the jar of memory. They cannot be too much cultivated; they are a crop which enriches the soil.” (John Ploughman’s Talks) Strategy for Self-Control - (from David Jeremiah’s Fruit of the spirit: Study guide.) The matter of self-control is a battle fought in the mind. The mind controls the passions. The battle is fought in the thought life. There is no conflict so severe as the conflict one goes through who labors to subdue himself. But there are some practical things God will use in our lives to help us move in the right direction. First of all, you need to realize you’re not alone in the battle. There are many people who struggle at this level. Second, I’d like to suggest that you not fight the thoughts individually. Sometimes in the very fighting you further make them an indelible impression on your mind. When evil thoughts come we ought to dismiss them as quickly as we can. We ought to war against them not by recreating the thought but by warring against that principle in our lives. The more we become obsessed with our desire to get rid of a thought, the harder it is to get rid of it. I think what God would have us do by way of strategy is objectify the thoughts by assigning them mentally their actual worth. Since the thoughts are worthless, we need to dismiss them as quickly as possible from our minds. The very thought itself is not necessarily a sin. If you take that thought and embrace it, hang onto it and milk it for everything it’s worth, that’s where the sin is. You can’t do away with the thought. But the sin is where you grab onto that thought. You need to develop a strategy for your own life in the matter of self-control. What I find in talking to guys who fight the battle of self-control is that they have a pattern of recurring failure. They keep failing the same way every time. They keep walking back over the same road and at that very same place they fall in the ditch. It’s not bad to fall in the ditch for the first time. But if you are going home on the same road, and every night you go home and fall in that same ditch, after awhile you’ve got to figure out you need a new route home. Or get a shovel and fill in the ditch. Falling in the ditch every day isn’t too smart. If you struggle with this and you examine where you fall, you will probably discover there is a commonality to it. There are certain places, certain times where you fall. You need to get a new routine. Stop setting yourself up for temptation. Finally, there is a dynamic principle of positive replacement that helps in self-control. The mind is only capable of focusing its attention on one major thought at a time. So you can deal with evil thoughts by programming your mind in a positive direction. Some examples are scripture memory, reading Christian literature, watching wholesome things on TV and focusing your attention on spiritual things. Did you know that by focusing your attention on something wholeheartedly, you can actually destroy an appetite? When I visit the college campus, I notice that after about four or five weeks, some people become occupied with each other. They sit together in chapel and in the dining room. They walk around moon-eyed. It’s an overwhelming thing to realize that an intelligent college-age person can get so occupied with another person they lose their appetite for food, they can’t sleep at night, and their whole life is rearranged. People get so enamored of each other they lost their appetites for things that are normal and natural in their lives. I’d like to suggest that the best way to deal with the struggle for control over your thoughts and passions is to become so occupied with Jesus Christ, fall in love with Him so much, that you don’t have any room left in your being and in your mind for these intruding thoughts to come in and take control. Maybe you think the only reason pastors urge you to come to church and Bible study is so we can count the numbers. But we want you there under the sound of the Word of God because we know if you’re there, that is the greatest hedge we can build around you to keep the adversary away. By focusing your mind upon Jesus Christ. APPLICATION 1. How disciplined do you think you are? Do you seem to be willing to pay the price for the achievement? What do you base your answer on? Do you know an example of a highly disciplined person? If so, who is that person and what are his or her habits? 2. On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being not controlled, 10 being very controlled), how would you rate your self-control in the following areas? eating habits exercise sexual life pride guilt obsessions devotional life conforming to the world What other areas of life might you add? How does a self-controlled life affect everything we do? 3. The immorality of Corinth became so widely know that the Greek word for “to Corinthianize” eventually came to mean “to practice sexual immorality.” Read 1 Corinthians 6:12–20. How do you think this would be received by someone deep in the culture of Corinth? How do you perceive the culture of our day? What are the sexual temptations that are prevalent in our society? 4. Reread 1 Corinthians 6:19–20. If our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, what are the implications for what we do with them? Make a list of the things this might include. How can we glorify God with our bodies? What shape is your temple in? 5. Read the following verses: 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 Galatians 5:19–21, 24 Ephesians 5:3 Colossians 3:5 1 Thessalonians 4:3–8 Hebrews 13:4 What are the different reasons given to avoid sexual immorality? 6. How can you practice tossing away an impure thought? What are some strategies you need to put into effect in order to win the battle of self-control? Where do you fall? 7. Make a list of wholesome thoughts and activities you enjoy with which you can program your mind in a positive direction.