CABL Forum - Principle #2

PRINCIPLE #2
EVERY SIN HAS ITS ORIGIN IN OUR HEARTS.

Before I came to Christ, I tried to overcome my addictions over and over again through regular attendance at group meetings in society. I would spend hours upon hours sulking in my coffee, smoking cigarettes, and discussing my endless desire to drink. Sound familiar? Why didn’t this type of activity help me?
Eph 5:11-12 reminds us to ...”have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.” Our sins of the past must be forgotten . To meditate and discuss them openly only gives place to the devil. I decided a long time ago I would rather tell people what God has done for me than to tell people what I had done to God.
Constant meditation (thinking) on our desire to fulfill a fleshly lust will ultimately lead to acting out our desire. If we’re fortunate to avoid it physically, we will seldom avoid it mentally. Proverbs 23:7 reads, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he...” For me to avoid the seemingly unending desire to fulfill my desire to feed my addiction, I needed to discipline myself to avoid talking about it (in a desirous way) and avoid thinking about it. By thinking about it, I was actually making it easy for myself to do wrong. Rom 13:14 states, ”But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”
I saw an old friend at a local grocery store. He had heard that I had stopped using drugs and had “found religion”. I explained how Jesus had changed my life and given me power over my addictions to both drugs and alcohol. He exclaimed his gladness and went on to tell me that he had been sober for three weeks. He had finally quit his job that led to after-hours drinking and had moved out of his buddy’s house (who liked to have drinking parties regularly). Realizing these were both good first steps, I encouraged him to visit church and offered to pick him up. He gave me the address. Unfortunately, the young man had chosen to take up residence in an apartment that was directly adjacent to a popular bar in town. He never made it to church. Why did this man fail in his recovery? He made it easy for himself to do wrong. Even if he never left his house, the constant sounds of the music in the bar beneath him would never let the thought of drinking leave his mind!!
You see, the heart can accustom itself to sin. An act that once would seem terrible and undeniably wrong can, by contemplating it too often, become attractive. Prov 4:23 reads, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Everything I ever searched for in life—the important issues of life: Love, Joy, Peace, Happiness, Friendship, Financial Freedom—were always witheld from me during my times of addiction. Why was that? Because the important issues of life are given by God and He never entrusts them to those who do not work hard (diligent) to keep (guard) their hearts from being hardened from the deceitfulness of sin.
Remember, before you ever did it, you thunk it!!!

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Principle #2