timcia
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To think right means to think the opposite of wrong. If we are not happy with someone close to us, thinking bad about them is wrong. Thinking right is to think about contentment and love, then to pray about contentment and love.
Second, to allow anxiety or anger to rule us is wrong. To think right consider having a couple of Bible verses in your phone to fight the negative emotion. Then think about those verses, then write a couple of short prayers about the specific emotion.
Third, some days do stink. Work stinks, school stinks, and _______ stinks. Don’t keep thinking about those things. Have 3 new things to think about in your phone. Give thanks for good things, then think about helping others. Then pray about helping others.
But there will be another tomorrow. Praise the Lord, get tough, and give thanks that a better day is coming.Finally, we all take time to think about what is bad about our lives. To think right, think about what is good about your life. Consider making it a habit to focus on what is good about your life.
The Bible says to think about things that are noble. Noble thoughts are majestic, awesome thoughts. Today we can think: God has a plan for me, or, God has a great plan for me, if I sit around thinking about problems, my habit, money… I may miss the majestic plan He has for me.
The Bible says, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” (Romans 1:21–25, ESV).
Paul said to “Set your mind on things above not on earthly things.” Noble thoughts are things like doing God’s will, thinking about helping others, as well as storing up treasures in heaven.
Second, thinking about things that are noble means thinking about honorable things. DeeperChristian.com noted:
“Jesus is our standard for honor and character. He displayed the decorum and honor of heaven and proved it is possible to live upon this earth with such a life. And now that same Jesus, through His Spirit, lives in you! It is imperative that our minds stay focused upon Him! The boundary for our minds is not just what is true but what is honorable, respectable, reverent, and dignified.
How has your mind been recently? Are the thoughts you dwell upon filled with honor? Are they reverent? Are they dignified—a thought process that is worthy of respect?”
Third, to increase in noble thoughts consider writing prayers that fight bad habits and increase in noble thoughts. Consider praying:
“Father, help me to turn from thoughts of _____ and help me to care about souls.”
“Father, show me how wrong thoughts poison my life. Help me to live with honor and reverence.”
“Father, help me to love and help people more than I love pleasure.”
If we think right, we will live right. Try to make it a habit to think right.
If we change what we think about we have a pretty good chance of quitting. If after 90 days we consistently think about 6 new healthy things daily we have increased our odds of quitting massively.
The Bible says to think about things that are true. #1 If you are a Christian, people around you are going to hell. Thinking about this truth should inspire us to work harder to quit. To think about this consider praying several times daily:
“Father, help me to turn from thoughts of _____, and help me to care about souls.”
Second, decide to be positive. Decide to be a shining light. We can either think work/school is going to stink today, or we can think, “I will try to do everything I can to make it good for the people around me today.”
Third, quote a great verse each day. If you stink at memorizing verses simply put them in a file in your phone. Consider memorizing: 1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
This verse is truth. Thinking about walking in the Light (Living God’s way) is thinking about truth.
Finally, wisdom is truth. Think about and consider praying several times daily:
“Father, fill me with Your wisdom, and help me to run from wrong places, and thoughts of _____.”
Read Proverbs to learn about wisdom. Additionally, this book is filled with warnings about lust/fornication/adultery. These things lead to other habits. Consider going to war with the.
Wisdom is taking time this weekend to plan a Bible verse to quote for every day next week. Wisdom is planning prayers for every day next week. Wisdom is making the decision to make it a priority to think about things that are true every day next week.
Thinking right leads to right actions which leads to success.
Can love conquer addiction? Love leads us out of isolation and toward people. My old go to was to lick my wounds, and use my pain to go back to isolation and addiction. When pain causes temptation to rise, get into scripture, and consider praying:
“Jesus, thank you for the pain you overcame on the cross for me. I will keep fighting until I conquer this thing.”
Second, we need a network of people loving us in order to change. Even if your self-help group gives you no new information, just the fact that they are there for you is very important.
Third, church people and pastors/priests are often loving and helpful. Get involved in church.
Romans 12:21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Studying love is good. Helping others is good. Good works are good. Loving others is good. When we become obsessed with these things, we start to overcome evil with good.
Finally, the earlier articles list things to do to increase in love. Consider making habits of some of these things. Why? Because, when we increase in love toward others, they will likely increase in love toward us. That is good for quitting.
What if we were given a brand new start to life? Put into paradise in the Garden of Eden. Everything brand new except that we still have our same old thoughts and ways of thinking. What advice would really help you change your life and get rid of this addiction?
I would say: “Dear Self, you are getting some of the destruction out of your life by reading several chapters of the Bible which has increased your faith. You are spending time in prayer every day which has helped you learn why and how to overcome sin and addiction. You are focusing on treating others with love and praying about being filled with love. This has caused you to realize that people are more important than any addiction. You are focused on finding and fulfilling your purpose which is filling you with joy.
But remember, satan will come into the garden. He will bring new updated tricks and temptations. But they will be the same old tricks and temptations disguised as something new and great. So today and every day focus on the fact that _____ steals your joy. Focus on the fact that sin steals your joy. Focus on the fact that being a slug and not fighting to fulfill your purpose steals your joy. Instead choose Christ who fills you with joy.”
Today, start a habit of Bible reading, prayer, and a focus on being filled with God’s love. These habits will start to squeeze out some habits that are killing you.Are we missing out on things if we don’t sin? The correct answer is we are not, but it is complicated.
There is only a finite amount of joy we can have. A fixed maximum amount. A finite amount of fun, excitement, and pleasure (FEP). When we do everything God’s way, we are close to the max amount on all 3 almost all the time. But when we only do a few things God’s way, we experience a below-average amount of fun, excitement, and pleasure (FEP) from normal activities.
So we fight to do things God’s way and our FEP steadily increases. But if we fall we get short-term fun then disaster. With satan’s way, our FEP for the month and year are always lower. With God’s way, our month and year are always higher. Plus once we start overcoming, our today starts to become higher and better as well.
If you want your FEP level high all the time, start aggressively doing things God’s way.
PRAYER
Prayer should be the most joyful time of our day. Once you learn how to do it, and make it a habit, it should be something you want to do and look forward to doing. So take a block of time out of your day and just talk honestly to God. Just start with the Lord’s pray and then move on.
If you are lonely pray, “Father, take away this spirit of drinking/drugs, this loneliness, and prepare me to help others.” If you are bored, pray, “Father, take away this spirit of drinking/drugs, and show me what you want me to do.” If you are sad, pray, “Father, take away this spirit of drinking/drugs, this sadness, and fill me with Your joy.” If you are covetous of other women, pray, “Father, take away this spirit of covetousness and help me to be content.” If you are depressed, pray, “Father, take away this spirit of drinking/drugs, this depression, and fill me with Your fire.
Key point: If you are willing to do something for God someday; your prayers will increase in power.
Write your own 2-way prayer. A 2-way prayer is saying what God wants and saying what you want. If you want your depression gone that is one half. And God really wants your drinking/drugs gone, that is the other half.
I have probably prayed, “Father, take away my spirit of ______, and help me to care about souls,” ten thousand times. Every time I prayed it I was totally sincere. For a long time, I was just another train wreck person trying to quit. But over time I started to change. And now that prayer is really being answered for me. And for the first time in my life this verse is true: Psalms 16:In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Finding our purpose is a top two quitting habit. A person who says, “I’m willing to do what God wants me to do to change the world,” is way more likely to quit. They have multiple reasons to quit, and high motivation to quit.
Second, quitting “sticks” way more often when you start your purpose. Life has never been better for me. Don’t want to mess up what I now have.
Third, purpose leads to joy. The worldly things people think lead to joy never do.
Consider praying: “Father, help me to avoid tempting situations, and help me to care about souls.”
Fourth, spend a block of time daily praying about purpose.
Fifth, try new things that you think God would want you to do.
Finally, develop the positive addiction of thinking about purpose often. It is what we are here for.
We should confess every sin every time and confess every sinful thought every time. For some… that will be a constant stream of confession. Good. Work constantly on using your confession as a reminder to think new thoughts. With every bad thought consider praying:
“Father, I am sorry again. I agree with you that this thought is wrong.”
Second, take 5 minutes to truly repent (When not busy). Consider praying:
“Jesus, I do not take Your cross for granted. Please help me to turn from triggers.”
Third, do not take God’s grace for granted like Annanias did (Lying to Peter). That ended very poorly.
Fourth, Consider memorizing good things to “Think about.” There are several in this thread and a bunch in the article Think About.
If you think correctly, nothing can stop you.The Bible clearly says “We can do it.” First, we need to gain the habit of turning from triggers. Step one is to tell God your plan. Consider praying:
“Father, help me to turn from triggers. I commit to praying this prayer _______ times per day. Praying it five straight times if I stumble on anything tempting.”
Use notes, alarms, and any other way you can think of to remind yourself of your goal.
Second, yesterday I did a couple of things in excess. Excess leads back to bad habits. Consider praying:
Father, help me to be moderate and content.”
Learn great new habits. Find joy.
Don’t Look Back
When the angel told Lot to leave Sodom, he gave instructions that no one should look back. Lot’s wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. Why did this happen? She left her sinful past and city only because she did not want to die. The city still obsessed her thoughts.
Second, quitting takes several steps. Not falling is step one. Going to war with temptation and bad thoughts is step #2. Getting rid of bad thoughts is step #3. Consider praying:
“Father, help me to have a reply for every bad thought every time.”
Third, consider making a Bible verse into a prayer:Psalm 101:3 ESV I will not set before my eyes on anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.” Consider praying:
“Father, I will not set my eyes on triggers. I hate sin, it shall not cling to me.”
Consider making it a habit to pray these prayers several times daily.
Lot’s wife needed to make it a habit to think new thoughts. We should learn from her to not look back. Not think our old bad thoughts. We need to think new thoughts. These prayers prompt new thoughts.
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