One falls, then regrets it. Instead, regret everything associated with falling in advance. If you can’t stop, you are doing things that start you towards a fall.
We should regret any thought towards ______. Even a “Wouldn’t it be nice if,” thought. No, no, no! Replace that thought with a quitting scripture, or quitting prayer.
Someday in heaven, someone will probably walk up to me and say:
“I thought so wrong that I printed out 7 articles on changing my thinking. After work, I kept them on my lap every day for 30 days. Everybody knew I could never quit.
I quit.”
Ephesians 6:10 ESV Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.”
Second, if you say, “Praise the Lord,” to replace a temptation you are being strong in the Lord. If you pray:
“Father, keep me from temptation,” when you are tempted, you are being strong in the Lord.
When you repeat one of your specific quitting verses often when temptation ramps up, you are being strong in the Lord.
When you are trying to fight to stay free, you are being strong in the Lord.
When you always take aggressive action against temptation, you are learning to regret in advance. Regret any thoughts. Regret being around wrong people, being at wrong places, and looking at wrong things.
Third, write down everything that “Leads to falling.” Then, write down what you will do instead to replace that sequence.
Finally, when you form habits of fighting temptation fiercely, you will then understand that the battle is usually won early. It is won because we fight so ferociously, so consistently, that we now think more about praying and scripture than we think about falling.
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