HOW TO CONQUER HABITS

God wants us to have a renewed mind. All habits begin in the mind. We allow ourselves to think of wrong things like gray area fantasies, that are only sort of evil. That only sort of leads back to addiction. They don't always lead back to addiction now, but they do lead back, sooner or later.

Satan is the king of using small little evil things to keep his foothold on you for life. But we can fight back by giving thanks for all things, by praising God all the time, and by worshiping Him all of the time. We are at war and we need to be fighting sin at all times.

iblp.org had the following great article:

"How to Conquer Sinful Habits

seven steps to victory

Is it actually possible to conquer destructive habits? Yes, because “with God, nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37). Through the provision of God’s grace, you can take positive steps of action to experience victory over sinful habits.

1. Engraft Romans 6 and 8 into your soul.

To “engraft Scripture” means to make it a living extension of your life so that it can produce spiritual fruit. Just as branches can be grafted into a fruit tree, so Scripture can be grafted into your mind, will, and emotions. For example, as you engraft the truths of I Corinthians 13, you will bear the fruit of genuine love, and if you engraft the truths of I Peter, you will bear the fruit of patience during suffering.

Memorize Romans 6 and Romans 8 word for word. Then, begin to meditate on those passages, and apply them daily to your life. As you engraft Romans 6 and Romans 8 into your soul, you will start to bear the fruit of victory over sin.

2. Understand, and believe, that you are dead to sin.

Regardless of your feelings to the contrary, the Bible says that believers are dead to sin. God wants us to “reckon” ourselves to be dead to sin, which means to “count it to be so.” (See Romans 6:11.) If a seductive woman walked past a dead man, he would not even blink an eye. God wants us to have a comparable response to the power and appeal of sin—to react to temptation as a dead person would react to temptation.

You died to sin when you became a Christian. At that very moment, you became a part of Christ. Since you are a part of Christ, you share in all of His past achievements: when He was crucified, you were crucified with Him (see Galatians 2:20 and Colossians 3:20); when He was buried, you were buried too (see Romans 6:4); when He rose from the dead, you rose from the dead (see Colossians 3:1). Therefore, you are dead to sin (i.e., not controlled by its power). Choose to believe that truth.

3. Rely on God’s power by relying on His Word to “carry you away” from temptation.

When God led the children of Israel out of captivity in Egypt, He said that He “bare . . . [them] on eagles’ wings” (Exodus 19:4). The Lord “carried them to safety” with His power, and the Lord wants to do that for His children today as well. God wants to carry you away from temptation and destruction “on eagles’ wings.”

When you begin to fall into temptation, it won’t take many seconds of falling before you experience defeat. Satan wants us to believe that when we start falling, there is nothing we can do but surrender to his temptations and be defeated.

Don’t believe the devil! When you start to fall, begin to quote the living, active words of truth found in God’s Word (see Hebrews 4:12 and I Thessalonians 2:13), especially those found in Romans 6 and Romans 8: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin . . . ? God forbid. . . .” (Romans 6:1–2). As you use the sword of the Spirit to battle against the wiles of the devil (see Ephesians 6:10–18), the temptation will lose its power and appeal, and God will carry you on eagles’ wings out of temptation’s reach. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus will lift you above the law of sin and death. (See Romans 8:1–13.)
More tomorrow.

 

People who have great success in life think about what they are going to do “All of the time.” To quit addictions we have activities planned for after work, school, etc. To increase your fire for doing these healthy activities it is wise to increase your motivation every hour. For example, you have 3 activities planned for later. A great workout, reading for an hour, then hanging out with Doug, who has a very healthy lifestyle.

You love to work out but the reading thing is hard. So every hour it is wise to get determined, and fully motivated to do your reading (or whatever activity is hard for you) in full so that your schedule stays full. You can have notes, phone alarms, or other reminders to get yourself to focus every hour. Then, when you get your reminder simply say: I will read today, I will ____ today. Nothing is going to stop me from reading or _____.

We see football players getting fired up before the game. They do this because it is hard to stay motivated when your head keeps getting smashed. Addiction smashes us. We need to get fired up, excited, determined, and ready. Plan it, get fired up about it, and do it.


Next: iblp.org had the following great article: Here is the last section of "How to Conquer Sinful Habits."

4. Personalize the truths found in Romans 6.

As part of the process of engrafting Scripture, turn the words of Romans 6 into a first-person prayer. Begin to quote Romans 6 to the Lord as your own petition and declaration of truth, like this: “What shall I say then? Shall I continue in sin, that grace may abound? God, forbid it. How shall I, being dead to sin, live any longer therein? Don’t I know that when I was baptized into Jesus Christ I was baptized into His death? . . .”

5. Make no provision for sinful desires.

If you want to walk in Christ’s victory over a particular temptation, but you “make provision” for that temptation to be carried out, you are deceiving yourself. (See I Corinthians 3:18.) God’s Word says, “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof” (Romans 13:14). What does this mean? It means that you should cleanse your life and your surroundings of anything that would contribute to spiritual defeat. This includes, but certainly is not limited to, sensual books and magazines, immodest clothing that defrauds others, items associated with occult practices, and friends who influence you to ignore or reject God’s Law.

6. Ask a Godly person to hold you accountable to pursue your spiritual goals.

Ask the Lord to guide you to someone who is concerned for your spiritual well-being, such as your parents, your spouse, a spiritual mentor, or a mature Christian friend, and ask him if he would regularly ask you about your progress with your spiritual goals. Tell him what your goals are, and give him precise questions that he can use to hold you accountable.

For example, to hold you accountable to engraft Scripture, you may suggest that he ask you this question once a week: Can I hear the Scripture you have memorized during the past week? To hold you accountable to read the Bible daily, he might ask you this question: What did you learn from your Bible reading this morning?

7. Be alert and obedient to promptings from the Holy Spirit.

In addition to reckoning yourself dead to sin, you also must walk in the Spirit to experience victory over sin. Learn how to discern the promptings of God’s Spirit, which always will be in harmony with God’s Word. “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Galatians 5:16–17).

As you obey the promptings of the Spirit, God will give you grace to reject the works of the flesh. (See Galatians 5:19–22.) You also will experience the fruit of the Spirit, which is “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, [and] temperance . . . . They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22–25).

Experience Victory!

As you take these seven steps of action, you can have victory over sinful habits. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies [to God as] a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). Remember, through God’s power and by His mercy and grace, “nothing shall be impossible!” (Luke 1:37).

 

We must be very intentional about our minds. Our natural desire is for the flesh. So we must focus on living for Christ on a daily basis. We do this by making our minds a stronghold for Jesus. Satan leaves when people are lifting up Jesus in worship, in singing, and prayer.

Action point: Keep worshiping and praying wherever you are. Especially when temptation is just around the corner. Example # 1. TV – Keep praying about turning from sin and keep praising God while you watch. Example # 2. Live events – I go to my daughter's volleyball tournaments, you probably go somewhere else where temptation pops up as well. It is vital to keep worshiping God and focusing on victory in these situations.

Lastly, be prepared for every situation. I am reading “Making Good Habits” (Meyer) right now. So when I am in risky situations I have to reverse everything that I am currently working on if I slip up. Since I am focusing on making better habits my train has a lot of momentum in that direction. The faster you get your train rolling in the right direction, the easier it gets to fight off temptation.

 

Temperance helps us conquer habits. Temperance is being sober-minded. If we like wild females on TV or are attracted to wild females in real life, we get more temptation. A sober-minded person praises the Lord and strives to be attracted to females who have self-control and are modest and godly.

Today, there is this giant tray of cookies and desserts. I need to stop the celebration and get back to self-control. My plan is to eat 1 cookie only today. The more areas that we practice temperance in, the more self-control we will develop. Second, reject and replace thoughts of anxiety, anger, and other negative emotions (as well as lust). Temperance says that anxiety, anger, and other negative emotions are from satan. We practice self-control by determining to reject and replace these bad thoughts. It is hard to find too many prayers for this and to work too much on this.

Finally, if you work on controlling your thoughts today (and every day), you will have “more” joy than people who overindulge in any area. Why? Because the Holy Spirit will start to be with you more.

For the full article click.

 

The 1-2 Habit

1-2 is a top 5 habit to have for quitting. The 1-2 is writing out or copying and pasting 1-2 key points from articles you like. Write out a top tip (or two) so that you can begin to remember it and implement it into your daily thoughts/life. Consider praying:

“Jesus, teach me Your Word for quitting.”

In Matthew 4 Jesus quoted a verse to combat every temptation. It is vital to copy how Jesus handled temptation. Consider quoting during temptation:

“Romans 8:6 ESV For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”

During temptation you need to know yourself. Pick a verse or verses that will stop the temptation cold, dead.

Second, take pride in how many ideas/prayers from the 1-2 system that you can remember and quote over the course of the week.

Third, put the 1-2 tips in your phone. Here is how it might work. You are at a buddies house talking. The TV is blaring temptation blatantly. You turn away and look at the tips in your phone.

Finally, it is hard to take ideas and then turn them into reality. It takes constant effort. But it will be one of the smartest things you ever did in your life if you decide to fight temptation at all times.