SET FREE FROM ME
The Invisible War – Part 3
08-18-13 Sermon
Seven Weapons of Self-Destruction
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Romans 8—The Cure for weapons of self-destruction
1. I must remind myself daily ______________________________________________
“So now there is
no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. For the power of the
life-giving SPIRIT has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of
sin that leads to death. The law of Moses could not save us, because of our
sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He
sent his own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful. God destroyed
sin's control over us by
giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so the requirement of
the law would be fully accomplished for us, who no longer follow our sinful
nature but instead follow THE SPIRIT.” Romans 8:1-4 (NLT)
2. I
ask the Holy Spirit ____________________________________________________
“Those who live
according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature
desires; but those who live in accordance with the SPIRIT have their minds
set on what the SPIRIT desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind
controlled by the SPIRIT is life and peace.” Romans 8:5-6 (NIV)
“The sinful mind
is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those
controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.” Romans 8:7-8 (NIV)
3. I
realize I have _______________________________________________________
“But you are not
controlled by your sinful nature. You are now controlled by the SPIRIT if you
have the SPIRIT of God living in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ
living in them does not belong to Christ.” Romans 8:9 (NLT)
“So,
dear brothers, you have no obligations anymore to your old sinful nature to do what it begs you to do.” Romans 8:12 (LB)
4. I need to turn my thoughts ________________________________________________
“Those who are
led by God's Spirit are God's children. For the Spirit that God
has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the
Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to
God, ‘Father! My Father!’ God's Spirit joins
himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children!” Romans 8:14-16 (TEV)
5. I need to focus on the __________________________________________________
“Since we are his
children, we WILL possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and
also we WILL possess with Christ what God has kept for him! For if we share
Christ's suffering, we will also share his glory! I consider that what we suffer at this present time
cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to
us.” Romans 8:17-18 (TEV)
6. I need to remind myself that _____________________________________________
“Also, the
Spirit helps us with our weakness. We do not know how to pray as we should.
But the Spirit himself speaks to God for us, and even begs God
for us with deep feelings that words cannot explain. God can see what is in our
hearts… and the Spirit speaks to God for his people in the way God wants.” Romans 8:26-27 (NCV)
“AND we know that
in ALL things God works for the good of those who love Him, who’ve been called according
to His purpose.”
Romans 8:28 (NIV)
“So what can we
say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever
be against us? And since God did
not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't God, who gave us
Christ, also give us everything else?” Romans
8:31-32 (NLT)
“Since God did
not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't God, who gave us
Christ, also give us everything else?” Rom. 8:32
(NLT)
7. I need to trust that God ____________________________________________
“I am convinced
that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can't, and life can't.
The angels can't, and the demons can't. Our
fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't
keep God's love away. Whether we are high above the sky or
in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from
the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39 (NLT)
SET FREE FROM ME
The Invisible War – Part 3
08-18-13 Sermon
We’re in this series on “The
Invisible War.” What I’ve told you
in the first two sessions is that the Bible teaches that you have three enemies
that are trying to mess up your life.
They want to defeat your family.
They want to defeat your life. They want to steal your soul. They want
to keep you from having joy and purpose and meaning here in life. These three enemies come against you,
kind of a triple team. Tag-team wrestling
or double-team takedown… things like that.
The Bible calls these three
enemies you have the world, the flesh and the devil. The world comes around you. Satan comes against you. And the battle with you is within you. In this series we’re going to go in
detail about each of these three enemies. Because if you don’t know who the enemy
is you can never win the battle and you’re going to go through life defeated
most of your life.
We’re beginning with your
biggest enemy. Your biggest enemy
is not Satan. It’s not the world.
It’s you. You are your
biggest problem. As I said last
week when you want to run away from your problems and you want to go to Tahiti,
the problem is you take you with you.
All that internal stuff is inside of you.
Last week we looked at this
great testimony of Romans 7 where Paul says, “I can’t figure myself out. All my best intentions aren’t good
enough. I want to do the right
thing but I don’t. And I don’t
want to do the wrong thing but I do.”
And that is the story of
you. And it’s the story of me. You know far more than you’re actually doing. If you were actually able to practice
all the good things you know to do, you’d be a lot more successful in life. But
it’s not just knowing it. It’s getting yourself to do it. There’s this battle because we have a
natural resistance inside of us that wants to do what’s easy, what’s convenient,
what’s quick. Rather than what’s
right and what’s best.
What I want us to do this
weekend is look at how to overcome the six weapons of self-destruction. You’ve heard of the weapons of mass
destruction. But I want to talk to you about what the Bible teaches about the
weapons of self-destruction. There are things you do to yourself all the time
that damage you, that hurt you, that cause you to self-destruct; that cause you
enormous stress, enormous pain, enormous unhappiness and unneeded pressure in
your life.
Then I’m going to show you
from God’s Word, in Romans 8, how the Bible tells us that the Spirit of God
living within you can give you the antidote to every one of these weapons.
Before we even get into the
text, I want you to write these seven things down. These are the seven weapons
of self-destruction. These are the
seven things that mess up people’s lives more than anything else. We’re going to look at the cure for
these weapons of self-destruction.
1)
shame.
2)
uncontrolled thoughts.
3)
compulsions.
4)
fear.
5)
hopelessness.
6)
Bitterness
7)
insecurity.
The classic passage on dealing
with these weapons of self-destruction is Romans 7 and Romans 8. Romans 7 explains
what these seven things do in your life. And Romans 8 gives us the answer. At the end of Romans 7, Paul says
this. He’s outlined the battle going
on inside himself. He says “What a
miserable person I am. [All
those things I know are good and I want to do I end up not doing. And all those
things I don’t want to do I end up doing. And I’m really messing up my
life. What a miserable person I
am.] I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. [Paul says I’ve watched Oprah. I’ve read a Dr. Phil book. I’ve done
all these different things. None of this stuff really works getting me into
shape.] Who will free me from this life dominated by sin?”
Notice he doesn’t say, What will free me. Because the answer to the problem
inside you, the mess ups in your life that you’d like to change, the answer is
not a pill, it’s not a program, it’s not a book, it’s not a tape, it’s not a
seminar, it’s not hypnosis. The answer is a person. It is Jesus Christ and his Spirit inside of you. Romans 8 is the answer to Romans 7. The Spirit of God inside of you gives
you the antidote to all seven of these negative emotions.
What I want us to look at this
morning is how can I be free from me?
So we’re going to look at seven mental habits that explain the great
truths of Romans 8.
The first step in being set
free from me is this:
1.
I must remind myself daily what Jesus did for me.
That’s the starting point.
I’ve got to remind myself everyday of what Jesus did for me. What is salvation? What are the benefits of it? We have a lot of people who are saved
but you don’t act like it. Let’s
look at these verses: Romans 8:1-4.
First he says, “So now there is no condemnation for those who
belong to Jesus Christ.”
“No condemnation” means God
doesn’t judge you for all the things you’ve done wrong if you’ve trusted Christ
because Jesus took all that judgment on the cross. He doesn’t have to judge you because Jesus was judged. He
doesn’t have to condemn you because Jesus took your condemnation. He took your rap, he paid your penalty,
he did your time for you.
The Bible says if I’m a
believer, if I belong to Christ, there is no condemnation for those who belong
to Christ Jesus. Circle the phrase
“belong to Christ Jesus.” This
whole passage is talking about people who’ve given their life to Jesus. This doesn’t apply to you if you
haven’t made that decision yet.
But if you’ve received Christ into your life the Bible says you’re under
no condemnation. That means there is
no reason for a Christian to walk around in shame; because I stop and I remind myself
Jesus paid for all of my sins. He
already knew before I was born every sin I was going to do. And he paid for it.
The next part of that verse says,
“For the power of the life giving Spirit
[that’s the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit] has
freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death.”
What does that verse mean? The second thing I need to remember is
that because I’m a believer, I have Jesus and that means I have a new power in my
life greater than willpower.
Before you became a Christian the only thing you had to use against your
bad habits was sheer willpower.
And how long does that work?
Not very long. He says now
there’s a new power in you.
Unfortunately a lot of
Christians are still simply relying on willpower to change. They’ve never figured
out how to connect into spiritual power. Into the power of the Holy Spirit. Into the power of Jesus inside of you. He says there’s a new
power in you. There’s a new sheriff
in town! And when you want to
change things in your life it’s not just if it’s to be it’s up to me. It’s not just my own willpower. It is God’s power in me. I have been given a power greater than
willpower. We’re going to look at
this more in the next verses.
The next thing it says “The law of Moses could not save us because
of our sinful nature.” Laws –
keeping God’s laws cannot save you. Why?
It says: Because of our
sinful nature. Laws simply work on
outside behavior; they don’t work on inside change. They don’t change you on the inside.
God knew that laws couldn’t save
us. “But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like
ours and God destroyed sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice
for our sins.” In other words
he gave us the power to make those changes – to forgive us and to change
us.
Then it says “He did this [Jesus died on the cross] so that the requirement of the law would be
fully accomplished for us.”
Circle “for us.” What is he saying there? That Jesus not only paid for all your
sins he did all the right things for you – those of us who no longer follow our
sinful nature, but instead follow the Spirit.
In other words, if you were
to die tonight and you were to go and before God in heaven and God were to say to
you, “Did you keep all my laws?” Your
answer is “No, but he did.” And
you point to Jesus. And God says,
“Friend of Jesus, come on in.” You
get a pass. That’s called
grace. You put your trust in my Son. You trusted what I sent him to do for
you.
The second mental habit to
defeat the weapons of self-destruction is,
2.
I ask the Holy Spirit to give me better thoughts.
I ask the Holy Spirit to give
me better thoughts. And if you ask
him to give you better thoughts do you think he will? Of course he will.
Of course he’s going to give you better thoughts. That’s a prayer he’s going to answer. I ask the Holy Spirit to give me better
thoughts. This is the second key to permanent change
in your life.
This is what it says in the
next two verses Romans 8:5-6. “Those who live according to the sinful
nature have their mind set on what that nature desires. But those who live in accordance with
the Spirit have their mind set on what the Spirit desires.”
There are two kinds of mind-sets. Circle “mind set”. There’s the mind-set of your old nature. And there’s the mindset of the Holy
Spirit. There’s the mindset of the
way I normally think about my life and there’s the mind-set of how the Spirit sees
my life. Which one is going to be
true? The one the Spirit sees. So I have to choose between these mindsets. Am I going to set my mind on the way I
normally think about my life or am I going to set my mind on the way God thinks
about my life.
There’s a big difference in
choosing these mind-sets. If you
choose one you’re going to get one response and if you choose the other you’re going
to get another. And the next part of
the verse tells us what that is. “The mind of sinful man is death. [That means it’s self-destructive.
Thoughts that you come up with yourself are going to tend to be self-destructive.] The
mind of sinful man is death. But the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and
peace.”
How many of you would like to
have life and peace? Me too. I
would like to have life and peace.
And it’s all about the mindset you choose. The economy may not change. It probably won’t. Your problems probably won’t change;
the ones that are persistent. But
your mind-set can change. And that’s
the difference between a life of self-destruction or a life of life and
peace.
This is the Holy Spirit’s
answer to uncontrolled thoughts.
What I do is I ask the Holy Spirit to give me better thoughts. And this is the principle of
replacement. Replacement. The
principle of replacement is anytime you want to change something in your life
and you’re serious about changing it you don’t resist it. You replace it. When you’ve got something negative in
your life you don’t resist it. You
replace it. I ask the Holy Spirit
to give me better thoughts to replace the negative ones in my mind.
You choose what you dwell on. Satan gives you ideas. That’s called temptation. The Holy Spirit gives you ideas. That’s called inspiration. You get ideas. But the truth is you choose what you
focus on. But now, now that you’re
a believer, you have a helper. And
you can say, “Holy Spirit, I invite you to give me your ideas.”
Don’t expect unbelievers to
act like believers until they are.
They don’t have the power. Look
at the next verse: “The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law nor can
it do so.” It can’t even do
it. Those controlled by sinful nature
cannot please God. So why do you
work on passing a law when they don’t have the ability to change? Only God can change them. Change comes
from the inside out.
The third principle, the third
mental habit you’re going to need to develop to apply the truths of Romans 8 in
your life. That is this:
3.
I realize I have a new ability to say no.
I need to realize that now
that I’m a believer I have a new ability to say no to the things that are self-destructive
in my life. This is very important.
Because before you became a believer all you had was willpower. And you lost to most of those bad
habits. Because willpower wears out. It’s not enough. But now with the Spirit in your life
you have a new ability to say no, a new power. You need to learn how to tap into that power.
Galatians 5:16 says this, “Let the Spirit direct your lives and you
will not satisfy the desires of the old human nature.” If I let the Spirit live through me
does it say I won’t have those desires?
No. It says I won’t satisfy those desires. In other words, do I still have the same desires I had
before I was a Christian? Yes. Do I still have the same
temptations? Yes. Do I still have the same urges and
compulsions? Yes. Do I fulfill them? No. Why? Because I
have a new power inside of me. And
it’s not just willpower anymore.
This is the good news of Romans
chapter 8. The next verse, verse
9, “But you are not controlled by your
sinful nature. You are now
controlled by the Spirit, if you have the Spirit of God living in you. And anybody who does not have the Spirit
of God living in them does not belong to Christ.”
The Holy Spirit doesn’t come in
at a later point. He comes in and
you get all of God when you give your life to Christ. The question is does he have all of you? For the rest of your life you’re going
to be giving more and more of your life to him and the more you give the more
power you have.
He says that because I have the
Holy Spirit I now have a new ability to say no. “So, dear brothers,
you have no obligation any more to your old sinful nature to do what it begs
you to do.” Before I didn’t
have anything except willpower to stop myself. Now I’ve got a new power inside of me. And I don’t have any
obligation anymore to listen to my old nature.
The fourth mental habit I
want to develop if I want to change my life is,
4.
I need to turn my thoughts to God whenever I’m afraid.
That’s the fourth antidote to
these weapons of self-destruction.
This is how God’s Spirit sets me free from me from the attitude of
fear. Romans 8:14-16 “For the Spirit God gives you does not make
you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God’s
children, and by the Spirit’s power we cry out to God, ‘Father! my father!’ [This is actually the Aramaic word “Abba.”
Abba is not just the singing group! It means Daddy, Papa. It’s Dada. It’s the most basic intimate
form of Father. Daddy, my daddy.
We cry out to God Daddy my daddy!
Papa, my papa! Abba my
Abba.] God’s Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we
are God’s children!”
Stop focusing on your fear. Start focusing on your Father. That’s
the antidote. Stop focusing on your
fear, start focusing on your Father.
Whenever you are afraid the first thing you need to do is remember this
– whose family are you a part of?
I’m a son of God. I’m a
daughter of God. I’m a child of God. I’m in the family. And families take care of each other. And there’s family protection.
When you are afraid you remember
whose family you’re in. You’re a
child of God. You’re not a slave.
You’re a child of God. And he’s going
to take care of you. And second,
you call out to your Father.
2 Timothy1:7 “God
has not given us a spirit of fear.
But a Spirit of power and love and self-control.”
“For the Spirit that God has given us does not make us
fearful or timid. Instead, his Spirit fills us with power, love and self-control.” The more
controlled you are by the Holy Spirit, the more self-control you’re going to
have.
A lot of people are afraid of
the Holy Spirit. “I don’t want to be filled with the Spirit. Filled with the Spirit? That’ll turn me into some nut. I’m going
to be some religious fanatic. I’m going
to be like some of those people on tv
and I’m going to lose control.”
Actually, it’s the exact opposite. The more you have of the Holy Spirit,
the more self-controlled you are.
It says, God has not given us the spirit of fear. So if you are afraid, that’s not from God. That fear is not from God. When God’s Spirit comes into your life,
you’re filled with love. I want that. You’re filled with power. I want that. You’re filled with self-control. I want that.
Ok, Holy Spirit, I want all you’ve got! Fill me. It
doesn’t make me some nut case. It makes
me more human. It makes me more
natural. It makes me more loving. It makes me more in self-control.
Mastered by the master I can master anything. Throw it at me. I can handle it. Why? Because “I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me.”
So the Spirit in me doesn’t
make me a lunatic or a religious nut. To be filled with the Spirit makes me more
self-controlled. And believe me! You need more self-control! The more Spirit controlled I am, the more
self-controlled I am.
The fifth thing we learn from
Romans 8 is about the antidote to hopelessness. That’s verses 17-18.
The habit I want you to learn to develop is to
5.
I need to focus on the long term, not the short term.
Focus on the long term not
the short term. There’s a very famous study done by Harvard University that
found out the more long term your thinking is the more successful you’re going
to be in life. The shorter term
your thinking is the more failure you’re going to be in life. People who fail
in life have short-term thinking.
They’re only thinking about today.
They’re only thinking about here and now. They’re only thinking about
what feels good to me right now. But the longer term you think the more successful
you’ll be in life. In fact, the longest
term thinkers are those who are most successful in life.
As a Christian we can win
this one hands down, because when we think in terms of long term, we call it
eternity. Because we’re not just thinking about life here on this earth. We’re not thinking forty or fifty years
ahead. We’re thinking about
trillions and trillions and trillions of years ahead. And living in light of eternity
is the key to being the most successful you can possibly be. Thinking in long term.
When you think in long term you’re
able to handle short-term pain a whole lot better. You’re able to handle short-term loses, short-term failures, short-term
hindrances because you’re thinking long term.
Romans 8:17-18 talks about focusing
on the long term. It talks about the promises of God. “Since we are his
children, we will possess [circle the word “will”. That’s a promise. That’s in the future.
It’s not now. It doesn’t say we do
possess. We will – long term. Since we
are his children we will possess] the blessings he keeps for his family, and we
will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him!”
Not only that but the Bible says
you’re going to be rewarded not just for how well of a steward you are but you’re
going to be rewarded for what Jesus did. Did you know that? That verse says “And also we will possess with Christ what God has kept for him.” Did you know that the Bible says that
in heaven we are going to co-reign with Christ? We’re going to be heirs with Christ for an inheritance from
the Father. We’re going to co-reign with Christ.
Notice it says, the rest of
that verse, “For if we share Christ’s
suffering, we will also share his glory! I consider that what we suffer at this
present time cannot be compared [it’s small potatoes] with all the glory that is going to be revealed to us.” He’s saying, Yeah! You know what? It’s not always easy living for Christ.
It’s not always easy doing the
right thing. It’s not always easy making the moral decisions. But the benefit long term is going to far
outlast the pain. You need to focus
long term not short term.
6.
The sixth habit is I need to remind myself that God is
good and in control.
This is an application of
what the Bible teaches in Romans 8.
This is how God sets us free from the self-destructive weapon of
bitterness. I remind myself that God
is good and in control. And you
need to remind yourself of that over and over and over – every single day.
I don’t have time to get into
this but verses 19-25 of Romans 8, Paul describes how sin has damaged the
world. If I got into this, this
sermon would be twice as long. We
don’t have time to get into it. So
let me just summarize. In verses
19-25 Paul says everything in the world is broken. Everything in the world has lost its original purpose. Everything in the world is suffering.
Everything in the world is in pain. And everything in the world is frustrated because sin broke
it all down. Everything is
frustrated. Verse 20 “Everything created is subject to
frustration, waiting to be liberated [set free from me] from its bondage to decay. All of creation groans in pain like childbirth.
And we groan inwardly.” This is tough! This is hard! This is difficult! Why is life so hard? The environment is groaning. I think of the earthquakes and the
hurricanes and I think of all the whacky weather. It’s the environment groaning because it’s broken. And we groan in pain because relationships
are broken. And later you’re going
to find out that the Holy Spirit groans in pain for you.
Life is unfair! Yeah! What else is new?
Life is unfair because it’s broken. But the Bible says in Romans 8 that there are four things
you need to remember to get over bitterness. Pain in your life is not optional. But misery is. Pain in your life is not optional. You’re going to have pain in your life. It’s called life. Suffering in your life is not optional. You’re going to have suffering. Misery is. Moaning is optional. Bitterness is optional. And you overcome bitterness by
remembering four magnificent truths in Romans 8.
Verse 26-27 says this: The Holy Spirit is praying for me. You might write that down. That helps me
overcome bitterness because no matter what I’m going through I know God’s on my
side. He’s praying for me. It says
here, “The Spirit helps us with our
weakness. We don’t know how to pray
as we should. But the Spirit
himself speaks to God for us.”
Did you know that? The Holy Spirit is praying for you.“The Spirit of God prays for us and even
begs God for us with deep feelings that words cannot explain. God sees what’s in our hearts and the Spirit
speaks to God for his people in the way that God wants.” So no matter what you’re going through. The first thing you know is right now the
Holy Spirit is praying for you. That’s cool!
The second thing, God is using it all for good. The next verse says this, “And we know that in all things God works for
the good of those who love him, who’ve been called according to his purpose.” It’s not all good but God is using it all
for good. God is greater than my
problems. God is greater than my
enemies. God is greater than my critics.
And God is using it all for good
in my life.
Number three, God wants me to succeed. Did you know that? Did you know that God wants you to succeed?
He doesn’t want you to fail in
your life. He wants you to succeed in your life. God is not against you. If you’re a Christian, if you’re a believer, God is for you. The Bible says in verse 31 “So what can we say about such wonderful
things [all the stuff we’ve talked about… why do we say about all these
wonderful things?] If God is for us who can be against us?” Remember. I’m in the family.
My Father is God. So God wants
me to succeed.
Finally, number four, God will give me what I need. When I’m feeling blue and I’m feeling
bitter I need to remind myself that God is good. He’s in control.
The Spirit is praying for me.
He’s using everything for good in my life. He wants me to succeed. And he’s going to give me what I need. Verse 32 “Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all,
won’t God, who gave us Christ, give us everything else?” If God loved you enough to let Jesus die
on the cross for you don’t you think he loves you enough to help you with your
debt? Don’t you think he cares
enough to help you with your health?
There is nothing in your life that God doesn’t care about. God will give me what I need. If God didn’t spare his Son to solve my biggest
problem everything else is small potatoes. It’s all minor to him.
There is no big problem in your life. They’re all small problems to God.
Finally we come to the last
habit you need to develop.
7.
The seventh habit is this: I need to trust that God will never stop loving me.
Trust that God will never, never
stop loving me. I’m in the family. He cannot not love his family. He will never stop loving me. Romans 8:38-39 “I’m convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t,
and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our
worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away.
Whether we are high above the sky or
in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us
from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
I may lose a lot of things in
life but I’ll never lose the love of God.
Once you’re in God’s hand he’s not letting go of you. You may want to let go but he’s not letting
go of you.
My question is this: Do you belong to Christ? Because none of these things are true
in your life unless you belong to Christ.
Do you have the Holy Spirit in your life? You say, I don’t know.
Let’s make certain of it right now.
Prayer:
I’m
going to pray a prayer as we close and ask you to pray it. Say this in your heart. Dear Jesus
Christ thank you for all that you did for me. Thank you that there’s no condemnation in my life for all the
sin that I’ve done. You took that
condemnation. Thank you that you
did what the law couldn’t do. Thank
you that you destroyed sin’s control. My righteousness is nothing, but your righteousness
is the ticket I get into heaven on.
Help me to never forget what you did for me. Holy Spirit, I ask you to give me better thoughts. I want to switch mindsets. I don’t want the mindset of self-destruction. I want the mindset of life and
peace. I didn’t want to think my old
ways. I want to think your new
ways. I invite you to put thoughts in my mind all the time. For they are the truth. And help me to remember and realize that
I have a new ability to say no. Lord,
I used to just have willpower. But
now I’ve got Spirit power. If I ask
you for help you’ll help me and give me the strength to say no. Thank you that no temptation is too strong. And when I am afraid help me to turn my
thoughts to you. Help me to
remember that I’m your child and help me, to cry out to you Father. Daddy! I’m afraid. To focus on my Father and not my
fears. Help me to focus on the
long term, not the short term. You
know the pain in my life. You know
the suffering. I want you to use it
for good and I want you to use it for your glory. And I want to look and focus long on eternity, not just the
here and now. I want to do the right
thing not the easy thing. When I start
to get bitter and I feel life is unfair, and when I feel hurt, help me to remember
that you, God, are good and you’re in control. That you are praying for me. Thank you for doing that; that you are working all things for
good. Thank you for doing that; that you are for me not against me. Thank you for
that. And that you didn’t spare Jesus
so you’ll give us whatever we need.
Thank you for that. Most of
all I thank you that you will never let go of me. You’ll never stop loving me. You’ll never reject me. Thank you that you will never stop loving me.
If
you’ve never invited Jesus Christ into your heart say, Jesus, I want you to be my
Lord, my Savior. I want you to be
the manager of my life. I don’t
understand it all but I want to trust in you completely. Thank you for your grace to me. I want to love you for the rest of my life
and I ask you to accept me into your family by faith. In your name I pray. Amen.
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