To Control Your Conduct, Control Your Thoughts – Part Four
Romans 7: 22 – 25
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119: 11).
Scripture is spoken of using various terms.
* “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul…”
The term “law” used here doesn’t simply mean the legislation of the Lord, it means the revelation of the Lord is perfect. That means God’s Word is complete and therefore best for us.
The Anglican Thirty-ninth Article says, “God has given us everything in His word necessary for salvation.”
If you want to do what is right regarding salvation obey His Word.
* “The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple…”
Whatever God testifies to is reliable. You can go to the bank with it.
It makes “wise the simple.” The word translated “simple” as used in this text means a person who is open minded to instruction.
Psalm 119: 130 notes the Scripture “gives understanding to the simple.’
* “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart…”
“Statutes” means His prescriptions. They bring joy.
* “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes…”
If life is viewed through the commandment of the Lord you have the best perspective and fullest understanding of it.
* “The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever…”
Why does he speak of “fear?” For the same reason teens speak of something as “awesome.” It is overwhelming, mind boggling.
Also, because as sinners we know we aren’t clean and He is.
* “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether….”
In American courts of law, the world’s best, many innocent people have been convicted and many guilty persons not convicted. God makes no error of judgment. None.
What He rules out we should rule out.
What He affirms we should affirm.
To develop a Biblical worldview you have to view the world through the Bible. Too many of us are like the report given by Brit Hume, ABC White House correspondent, on a former President’s trip to South Korea: “He was the very picture of an engaged commander-in-chief standing with his men on an outpost watchtower to gaze at the enemy territory just across the way. Whoops!” he said, “those field glasses do work better with the lens cap off.”
Preset your mind set. All of us do without realizing it. Most often it is done unconsciously. For example, are you an optimist or a pessimist? How did you get that way? Likely you evolved into it.
To Control Your Conduct, Control Your Thoughts – Part Three
Romans 7: 22 – 25
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119: 11).
She was lovely, successful, and brimming with promise. This was her senior year in high school. She was active in her church youth group. A straight “A” student, she was a cheerleader, and homecoming queen. Life was good.
She sat in my office with tears streaming down her cheeks and choked out the story of her pregnancy. Then she said, “I don’t know why I did it?”
I said, “I know why you did it?”
With a flash of fire in her eyes and anger in her voice she snapped, “Why?”
“You did it,” I said, “because a long time before you did it you made up your mind to do it by the music to which you listened, the movies and TV you viewed, and the conversation of friends to which you listened.”
She dropped her head and nodded gently as she said, “You are right.”
Preempt improper programming. Get it out of your life if you don’t want it in your life. Get it out of your cranium before it gets in your conduct.
Some TV sets have the capacity of having a channel preset so it comes on automatically. It’s preferred. This must be true of our minds. Preset your mind on proper programming.
Some people have an immature concept of prayer as being like a child asking a divine Santa Claus for things. We are to ask Him to supply our every need, but prayer is more. We need to grow out of the stage of making prayer a matter of “give me,” into a deeper level of “Lord, make me.”
Preset your mind on Scripture.
We often wait until a crisis or a major problem and then want a verse of Scripture that will make life simple. Don’t wait.
That is exactly what we often do, however, spiritually. We wait until there is a problem or a crisis and start looking for a verse of Scripture to use. Memorize it in advance. That is equivalent to loading your gun before it’s too late. By memorizing it in advance you can simply apply it preventively and do what you should or not do what you shouldn’t do.
The brain is sophisticated and complex. Here is an elemental insight. Negative thoughts produce certain chemicals in the brain. Positive thoughts produce other chemicals. In turn these chemicals tend to attract thoughts that produce them. Therefore, if you have been thinking negatively you have a negative chemical flow. This causes more negative thoughts. If you have been thinking positively you have a positive chemical flow and will tend to continue to think positively. You have a preset mindset.
The matter of doing the right and not doing the wrong comes down to mind over matter as noted in Romans 7: 25, “So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin.”
It is a matter of mind over matter and the mind only prevails if it is under the control of Jesus Christ. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”
To Control Your Conduct, Control Your Thoughts – Part Two
Romans 7: 22 – 25
Improper thoughts are illustrated as being two strong fortresses. These fortified positions crumble before the weapons of the Spirit.
They are spoken of as “arguments” and “high thing(s).”
“Arguments” refers to intellectual pretension or human conceit. It is a deceptive fantasy.
The expression “high thing” refers to improper pride.
In summary the two refer to any barrier of pride that is erected against the knowledge of God.
Then follows the appeal to bring “into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ…” The New English Bible translates this, “we compel every human thought to surrender in obedience to Christ.”
That great theologian Barney Fife: “I don’t have time to deal with those trivial trivialities.” Neither do we.
Therefore, when you have a deceptive fantasy or improper pride rethink the subject and superimpose a thought you are confident Jesus would have if thinking on the subject. That is what is meant by bringing our thoughts into captivity.
We do well to memorize and practice Psalm 19: 12 – 14:
“Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight. O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”
Preempt improper programming.
Chris Craft, former head of our space program, was asked, “When is the best time to make a decision?”
His answer is classic: “Before you have to.”
In reality that is when we make most of our decisions. He continued to explain that before every space flight it is programmed in detail with every possible alternative considered. In that way if something goes wrong they don’t have to try to figure out what to do under the pressure and emotion of the moment. That is true in the spiritual realm also.
An aid in guarding the mind is to guard your eye. Resolutely affirm with the psalmist “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes…” (Psalm 101: 3). The eye is a primary portal to the mind. What you view determines your view of things. Technology makes it easy to access catalysts for carnality.
Not only avoid the negative, search for wholesome material that encourages Jesus, pleasing action.
Establish a Bible study and Bible memorization program that you may have in store at the fountain head of your heart Jesus’ pleasing principles as a result of being able to say “thy word have I hidden in my heart.”
To Control Your Conduct, Control Your Thoughts – Part One
Romans 7: 22 – 25
Jesus “…works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure” (Philippians 2: 13).
The dynamic living Lord Jesus spiritually indwells the believer. Two of the many functions He performs are to motivate and enable a person to do what is right.
He is responsible for the IN-WORKING we for the OUTWORKING. Somewhere between the in-working and the outworking there is often a breakdown. Romans 7: 19 speaks embarrassingly for most of us: “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”
Is that a painful description of you? None can answer “yes,” with pride. Well, then if there is no pride let there be no contentment in continuing a herky-jerky, on-again-off-again lifestyle.
Christianity isn’t intended to be a series of ups and downs. It is to be a succession of ins and outs. Jesus works in us that His will might be worked out by us.
Two full-time college students majoring in music were discussing their part time jobs. One said, “I work in the opera at night. The pay is good even for my bit role as a spear carrier.”
The second, knowing of his fellow students’ long day and heavy schedule said, “How do you stay awake so late at night?”
“Simple, the guy behind me carries a spear also.”
We need to develop the mind-set of a person with a motivating spear carrier behind him if we are to avoid doing what we should not and instead doing what we should. To do this a certain mind-set is essential.
Before medical science had progressed to know better it was believed that conscious thoughts came from the heart. Knowing the heart pumped blood it was thought of as being the point of origin for thoughts which were believed to be carried from the heart to the brain by the blood. Figuratively, this language was used by Jesus who said, “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts…” (Matthew 15:19).
If we are going to do what we should and avoid what we should not do we must preempt improper thoughts. Don’t program your mind with secret improper thoughts and expect your conduct to be proper. We need to learn mental discipline. A technique for doing this is noted in II Corinthians 10: 5.
“…casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…” It is called discipline. If you want to discipline your conduct, discipline your thoughts.
If God Be for Us… And He Is! Part Four
Romans 8:31
Romans 8:35 asks the question: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Following is one of the strongest passages proving the eternal security of the believer, that is, once you are saved you are kept.
The “Who” is a personal pronoun referring to Satan. He is the counter universal super power. If He can’t separate us no one can. Observe the inventory of tyrants that try to separate us.
Tribulation. This is a reference to the many common problems we face. It translates a word meaning “to be squeezed or thrashed” from without.
Distress. This is a compound word meaning “to be caught in a narrow place” or “to be hemmed-in with no way out.” It speaks of being trapped by oppressive circumstances.
Persecution. This refers to physical or mental suffering inflicted by others.
Famine. Emphatically NO!
Nakedness. Not even a non-designer label wardrobe.
Peril. Any number of threatening dangers can’t.
Sword. A reference to war. Not even it can separate us.
In all these things “we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (8:37).
This was no abstract theory. This was a statement coming from a man who had experienced all of these things. Out of his personal crucible of crisis he reached this conclusion.
The list goes on and whatever the extreme in all these things we are more than conquerors.
In life or death we are MORE than conquerors.
In things present and things future we are MORE than conquerors.
Whether heights or depths, whatever dimension or space or time, we are more than conquerors.
“We are more than conquerors,” we are B – I – G winners, super-conquerors.
“I am persuaded” (8:38), I have reached a fixed conviction about which there is no doubt. This persuasion came from and comes from experiencing God in all circumstances.
Have you been doubting instead of being persuaded of God’s love? You can undergo a change. Three steps are involved.
The first level is knowledge. This is easy to change. You have been afforded Biblical insight in this passage that is enough to change your knowledge level.
Second is attitude. This is tougher to change. It is knowledge that is emotionally charged. Now you know something and you feel very strongly about it positively or negatively.
The third level is behavior. You have to do something. You have to overcome an old way of thinking or habit. “To separate” is an aorist infinitive meaning no one at any one moment in time is able to separate us from the love of God for even an instant, much less for eternity. The believer is secure in Jesus. That is true today and every day.