The Bible is more important for quitting if you pray a lot and don’t do what the Bible says. Prayer is an unused weapon if all you do is go to church and read a chapter of the Bible every day. The point is… satan wins when we are unbalanced in either direction. Most every person reading this is unbalanced and is on one side or the other (including the writer).
Some of you would be shocked to learn that my unbalance is not enough scripture and plenty of prayer. Since I more often tell you to read and study scripture all of the time. Why? Because I am trying to be more balanced.
Satan will use whatever you don’t do enough to keep you in bondage.
Second, and this is just my opinion. Satan hates it when we study the Bible and when we pray, but he prefers for us to be unbalanced with less Bible study. Why? I spent decades praying about quitting. Praying about anger, and greed. But then, in a moment of clarity, I started attacking these issues with Bible verses about them.
I am not saying prayer did not help. It did. I prayed and prayed and prayed about anger and God delivered me from that. But if you ask me today how to attack your anger, I will tell you to first look up verses on anger so that you can study, meditate and dwell on them until Jesus’ truth about anger starts filling you up. Then, pray, pray, and pray consistently about anger to prepare for your next temptation.
But… I had such a stronghold of __________. Prayer alone did not work for me. The truth is, I really needed all that prayer, plus a focus on purpose, plus those Bible verses to pound it out of me.
Third, today, be honest about which discipline you don’t do enough. Then consider praying:
“Father, show me how to be balanced.”
If you are a Bible pounder and you don’t know how to pray. You are going to be shocked by what happens when you dig into prayer. If you love to pray and never give the Bible a thought other than a quick chapter a day. You will be shocked by the power it brings you when you dig into scripture about things you want changed in your life (It works better when the things are God’s will).
Use “Verses _______” to pound on some sin habit if you see that prayer is your strength. Spend extra time in prayer if you see that you get plenty of scripture in you. If what you are now doing is not beating your habit… consider changing what you are doing.
Being balanced more than doubles your weapons of warfare.
Double your weapons today, and determine to change your former lack of balance into a current strength. It will be a great decision.
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