HOW TO STAY COOL, WHEN IT GETS HOT
Week Three: Guard Your Thoughts
It’s summertime! And it is getting hot. Wherever we go, we will see men and women wearing less clothing. What does this mean when we battle with lust? Temptation.
This month we are on a mission to help you gracefully deal with that temptation. In week one we learned that if we want to stay cool when it gets hot then we need to leave the room. In week two we learned that we need to protect our vision. Today, in week three, we will learn to guard our thoughts.
When my husband, Richard, and I started dating, I learned something about him… He was a junk-food junkie. This was a total turn-off for me because I pride myself on eating healthy. I will never forget the night when I invited Richard over for dinner. He looked at his dinner plate with hesitation and then proceeded to ask me if I put bird food on his plate. I laughed hysterically and said, “No, what you see on your plate is quinoa, not bird food.”
Over the next several years, I continued to feed my husband food that was good for him and encouraged him to stay away from his typical drive-thru menu. There are now times when he calls me from work to request salad for dinner. This makes me so proud.
My husband no longer craves unhealthy things like he used to because while in my presence I fed him things that were good for him. The same is true for us when it comes to our relationship with the Lord. The more time we spend in the presence of a good God, the less we will desire things that are not good for us.
[shortcode-variables slug=”30-day-challenge-inline”] If you have trouble controlling your thoughts when you see someone wearing less clothing, or when you hear something inappropriate, I would ask you how often you spend time in God’s presence.
2 Corinthians 10:5 teaches us to cast down imaginations and to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. How can you bring your thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ if you don’t spend time with Christ? Just like my husband’s appetite changed because of who he spent time with, your appetite will also change because of who you spend time with.
Friend, if you want to protect your thought life so you can live a pure life then you need daily encounters in God’s presence. You can try on your own to control your lustful thoughts. However, relying on your own strength is far more challenging than renewing your mind, by opening up the Bible and spending time with God. In time, Jesus will literally wipe those thoughts and cravings away.
Remember, your actions always begin with your thoughts. In order to lead a great life, you first need a great thought-life and that begins in the presence of the Lord.