Why do believers keep on sinning? Wouldn’t it be easier if, after we become believers, we couldn’t sin anymore? But we do, and it seems like we are many times led astray by our thoughts. This daily devotional discusses the ability to keep sinning and how we can corral our thoughts.
It would be so much easier if sin could be taken out of the picture after we give our lives to God. Or maybe after we’ve been a believer for a certain number of years, we wouldn’t have the battles that we do.
I used to look at the older believer and be envious. They seemed like they didn’t have these battles. I couldn’t wait until I had “arrived” at that point.
But believers never arrive while they are on this earth. As the song says, “The Journey is Our Home.”
Doing What We Don't Want to Do
"For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me" (Rom. 7: 15-20 ESV)
Instead, the journey is filled with many trials. They are there because we are now believers. Because we know how what God’s Word says, we know what sin is.
Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
Glossary
Before salvation, we didn’t know our actions had been wrong in the eyes of God. Our actions were natural for us. How could they be wrong? It seemed they were just our human nature.
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
What Our Minds Have to Do with It
Now God has revealed Himself to us. He has shown us what He considers right and wrong. We know and learn with our minds what God’s promises are – but we still have our sinful body. That becomes our continuous battle – mind v. body.
Really, our faith is in the mind. Faith is a gift from God that enhances the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives and distinguishes us from others.
Glossary
We can’t see God or call Him on the telephone to talk to Him. We have to reason it out in our minds – and then just believe – that there is a Superior Being in control of the universe.
Our sinful bodies have to be controlled by our changed minds. We have to “… be transformed by the renewing of your mind …” (Romans 12: 2 NIV). This transformation will take time.
God saves us instantaneously, but this transformed mind does not happen instantaneously. We have to “… work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in [us], both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2: 12–13 ESV).
God allows us to understand what we need to so that we can get to the point where we step out in faith and believe.
Our changed minds have to be controlled by God. If our human nature control us, we disobey God’s law and displease Him. We keep God out of our lives and chose a life led by our human nature.
How Do We Apply This?
So, we must begin by believing in our minds that God is our Father. We must then discipline our minds, so our minds control our bodies.
Many times, though, our thoughts seem to have a mind of their own. Have you ever thought about something that you know you really shouldn’t? Of course.
Corralling our minds is hard. It is really, really hard to stop thinking about that something (preaching to the choir here). What can we do?
Having unwanted thoughts is human. It is not a sin to have them. That is the temptation. Temptation is a suggestion in our mind that would lead us to sin rather than following God’s Will. It is also that period of time between conception and execution of doing what is sinful.
The sin comes into play depending what we do with the temptations. The sin could be actively thinking about them or putting the thoughts into action.
Sometimes, we try to stop ourselves from thinking the thoughts we are having. This is called thought suppression.
Seems impossible sometimes, doesn’t it? In fact, it seems like the more we try not to think about something, the more we end up thinking about it.
Enter human nature — or, more specifically, Satan’s influence. Telling ourselves to not think about something can trigger us to think about it. Plus, if we are going to evaluate how successful we are in not thinking, couldn’t that trigger the thinking of the unwanted thought?
We bite on ourselves because we can’t just manhandle the thoughts out of our brains. Sometimes, we think the only success can be cold turkey – permanently.
We can try to corral our thoughts by setting goals. We can develop (and I have) goals in an attempt to harness our thoughts. The goal could be to decrease the behavior by a certain amount by a certain time.
The action plan to accomplish that could spell out how we are going to change our environments to eliminate temptations. It could establish milestones so we can celebrate success of reaching certain levels.
It could be we are going to research the topic to help develop strategies to put the brakes on our brains. Maybe at first, we have to define success as a longer time period between thoughts.
Sometimes, we substitute something for the unwanted thoughts. Have you ever told yourself that, when the unwanted thoughts slip into the mind, you would think about God and say Bible verses instead? I have.
The Bible does seem to promote this. “May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the LORD” (Ps. 104: 34 NIV). “I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways” (Ps. 119: 15 NIV). God wants us to think about His ways.
This substitution is called a distraction strategy. It tells us we have the ability to control our environment and behavior. When we have specific replacement thoughts in mind for when the unwanted thoughts come, we help corral our minds instead of letting them wander.
Have you seen a correlation between stressful times and the presence of unwanted thoughts? Does it seem like the stress comes and your distraction strategy flies out the window? That would mean we need to avoid stress. Yea, right.
Struggling with unwanted thoughts and trying to suppress them can make us more anxious and depressed. That increases the stress level.
Ooo, baby. Can we say vicious circle? Especially if we want these thoughts gone permanently and bite on ourselves for failing!
Maybe for some thoughts, corralling them means postponing them temporarily. It might be helpful if we set aside time to consider them. If we intentionally think about them, we will be more in control.
When it is time to think about them, we should dissect them to see what is so attractive about them, not just think them. We can then develop the action plans to address that. It might help to write it all down in a journal.
It is really hard to corral our thoughts. In a way, we are setting ourselves up for failure. We will have to fight our human, sinful nature until the day God calls us home. God knows that.
Still, we are called to be obedient. “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (Jas. 1: 22 ESV).
We have to follow through on how God has told us to live. God will help us. He will even help us corral our thoughts.
Father! My Father! You have accepted us as Your children, and we affirm You as our Father. Lord, even though we are Your children, we have bodies of this world. This causes conflict in our lives. Help us to discipline our minds, Lord, that we can corral our thoughts and obey You. Strengthen us to live according to Your Laws, not according to actions this world will accept. Amen.
What do you think? What are some of your strategies for controlling your mind? Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
Related Links
Related Links
On researching thought suppression for this devotion, I came across these two articles which I used as the foundation for my devotion.
Stewart, I, Hooper, N., Walsh, P., O’Keefe, R., Joyce, R., McHugh, L. (2015). Transformation of thought suppression functions via same and opposite relations. Psychological Record, 65(2), 375–399. doi 10.1007/s40732-014-0113-0
Wegner, D. M. (2011). Setting free the bears: Escape from thought suppression. American Psychologist, 66(8), 671-680. doi: 10.1037/a0024985
What do you think?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
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