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Temptation – Part 4

Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.
Psalms 119:37

Resisting a thought doesn’t work. It only intensifies your focus on the wrong thing and strengthens its appeal. By resisting it you actually reinforce it. You don’t defeat temptation by fighting the feeling of it. The more you fight a feeling, the more it consumes and controls you. No, the quickest way to neutralize temptation is turn your attention to something else! The battle is won or lost in your mind. Whatever gets your attention will eventually get you. Ever watch a food advertisement on TV and suddenly feel hungry? That’s the power of suggestion. We naturally gravitate toward what we focus on. Repeating, ‘I must stop eating so much, or smoking, or lusting’, is a self-defeating strategy. It keeps you focused on what you don’t want. Ignoring temptation is far more effective. Once your mind is on something else, the temptation loses its power. Your mind is your most vulnerable organ, so you must keep it focused in the right direction. You defeat bad thoughts by replacing them with good ones. This is the principle of replacement. You overcome evil with good (see Romans 12:21). Satan can’t get your attention when your mind is preoccupied with something else. That’s why the Bible says: ‘fill your minds with good’ (Philippians 4:8). If you’re serious, you must start managing your mind and monitoring your media intake because, ‘your life is shaped by your thoughts’ (Proverbs 4:23). This takes lots of discipline and practice, but with God’s help you can reprogram the way you think and overcome temptation.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, Help me to think good thoughts and keep my mind on good productive things rather than things that pull me away from you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen