A simple but POWERFUL truth to use in times of temptation.
What if God gave us the most powerful truth to overcome stumbling blocks in His very first commandment? I think He did.
Mark 12:30
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
"Okay, but how does this work practically?"
your heart is full of light or darkness based on what you allow yourself to indulge in.
Be it of God or of the world.
So as the heart builds on to your wants your mind becomes a tool, a super computer that amplifies the desire with powerful imaging and begins formulating practical ways to make these things actually happen.
The more we accept these thoughts and desires the more frequent and powerful they become.
"Let us never forget that it is for these things that the wrath of God comes upon all nations."
Here is the power.
By focusing on these three things during the time of temptation:
One by one God pulls them into subjection.
First my heart. (I say these things be it in my head to God or out loud if I'm alone.)
"love the Lord God with all my heart."
His love comes flooding in.
"Love the Lord God with all my Mind,"
*my mind embraces Loving and worshiping and thanking God."
All my strength
"with all my body and with all my strength, Amen."
I instantly receive great strength as one by one these things are pulled into subjection.
Not by me, but by Gods love for me, and the true love I have for Him.
what happened?
In my soul, I find that my treasure is in Christ, (that pulls my heart to the light)
"but what of the mind?"
My mind immediatly submits itself to the heart because
it too is lead by the change of heart as well as to its own committment
to loving God in it's entirety.
Instantly the mind filters away the self serving thoughts as well as shifting the focus
that may have brought on this stumbling block to begin with.
Now the body has been purged from the inside, sin has been chopped at its roots.
True strength has come. Christs strength.
For the Lord has truly set us free.
Luke 12:34
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Matthew 6:22-24
King James Version (KJV)
22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
24
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Colossians 3
King James Version (KJV)
3 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
6 For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
What if God gave us the most powerful truth to overcome stumbling blocks in His very first commandment? I think He did.
Mark 12:30
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
"Okay, but how does this work practically?"
your heart is full of light or darkness based on what you allow yourself to indulge in.
Be it of God or of the world.
So as the heart builds on to your wants your mind becomes a tool, a super computer that amplifies the desire with powerful imaging and begins formulating practical ways to make these things actually happen.
The more we accept these thoughts and desires the more frequent and powerful they become.
"Let us never forget that it is for these things that the wrath of God comes upon all nations."
Here is the power.
By focusing on these three things during the time of temptation:
One by one God pulls them into subjection.
First my heart. (I say these things be it in my head to God or out loud if I'm alone.)
"love the Lord God with all my heart."
His love comes flooding in.
"Love the Lord God with all my Mind,"
*my mind embraces Loving and worshiping and thanking God."
All my strength
"with all my body and with all my strength, Amen."
I instantly receive great strength as one by one these things are pulled into subjection.
Not by me, but by Gods love for me, and the true love I have for Him.
what happened?
In my soul, I find that my treasure is in Christ, (that pulls my heart to the light)
"but what of the mind?"
My mind immediatly submits itself to the heart because
it too is lead by the change of heart as well as to its own committment
to loving God in it's entirety.
Instantly the mind filters away the self serving thoughts as well as shifting the focus
that may have brought on this stumbling block to begin with.
Now the body has been purged from the inside, sin has been chopped at its roots.
True strength has come. Christs strength.
For the Lord has truly set us free.
Luke 12:34
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Matthew 6:22-24
King James Version (KJV)
22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
24
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Colossians 3
King James Version (KJV)
3 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
6 For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.