E
Genesis 4:6-7
So the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."
Ephesians 6:10-12
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
OK, so as Christians, we all know what the Ten Commandments are. We know that Jesus teaches that sin is not just a physical affair, but it is also part of an excessively mental and spiritual conflict. In the above Genesis verse, God told Cain to "master" the sin oppressing him before he murdered his brother. Yet because he continued to harbor anger and resentment in his heart, his "mental sin" became his physical sin. The same thing can be said, unfortunately, of every single other sin ever committed. It began with the mind. Jesus calls lust adultery and hate murder. This is why simply choosing to NOT do something on the spur of the moment is not enough! We have to pre-decide, before we are ever even in a situation, where our boundaries lie. Beyond that, we must recognize that any and all compromise is also "mental sin" and is just another trick of the Devil to make a nonexistent "grey area." Brothers and Sisters, I'm not sure why I chose to post this specifically on the Singles Forum, but I just felt led to... like I had to do it. Lust is a very big mental sin for us Singles (like me), and unholy anger is not that foreign to most of us either. I'm asking you now... No, God is asking you in his Word: Take responsibility for your actions BEFORE you act! NOW! I know so many people in my life (and if you are a human being, you do too) whose lives have been in some way wrecked by a lack of discipline in this area. They may not have even been bad people. They don't have to be... All they have to be is available to The Enemy. He doesn't need (or even necessarily want) you to become the most terrible human being. All the Devil requires is for you to be complacent, complaint, lax with your heart and mind... and then he wins a round. Remember, our war is against him and our own sinful, carnal natures, just like in the above verse from Ephesians! Guard your Heart! Hope this helps! Farewell, and God bless! It's time to give God the reigns!
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Colossians 3:1-7
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with it's practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Romans 7:24-25
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord! so then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.