Great Commission Churches

January 2002

 Dear sisters,

Happy New Year to all, along with my prayer that your 2002 will be filled with peace!

Su Keators article this month, Practice Makes Perfect reminded me of a passage in Hebrews 12 about a harvest of righteousness and peace. (Heb. 12:11) Su shares with us her hearts pursuit of a new victory in thought control.

The discipline spoken of in Hebrews is Gods discipline to teach and train His children, which doesn’t seen pleasant at the time, but painful. To go through the process of replacing wrong thinking with right thoughts can be painful also, but our own self-discipline in this area of transformation can also produce the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

I cant think of a more wonderful rest, than that of being of the same mind as my Lord and Savior! I pray you all find encouragement towards that in Su’s article.

With love,

Sandy

Practice Makes Perfect

By Su Keator, Living Hope Community Church, Phoenix, Arizona

I love new beginnings; and with the New Year, I’m looking forward to getting a new grip on a very vital area! I have been freshly challenged through two sources: Breaking Free by Beth Moore, and The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace.

The phrase in the latter book that has caught my attention is: Practice, practice, practice until you get it right! Those last 5 words opened my heart to pursue a new level of victory in the area of thought control!

There is a difference between casual thoughts that come to our minds on occasion (and we easily dismiss them), and captivating (controlling) thoughts that persist or repeatedly plague us in the face of certain situations or stimuli.

The danger of letting negative, unbiblical thoughts go unchecked is that they fuel strongholds in our lives such as fear, jealousy, pride, being critical of others, anxiety, or bitterness. 2 Cor.10: 5 gives us the incredibly high standard of ...taking EVERY THOUGHT captive to the obedience of Christ.

We are probably all familiar with the put off put on principle of Eph. 4 where we are told to lay aside the old (thought or whatever) and put on the new biblical thought or attitude or behavior.

But perhaps many of you, like me, have struggled with this. We try to replace the old thought with the new, and yet the old one comes back packed with all the wrong emotion and attitude.

So we try it again and the old comes back again---in the next second, the next minute, the next hour, day, week etc.... and we say to ourselves, This isnt working! I cant change the way I think or feel about that person or that situation! And we can almost conclude that in the area of thought control, Im doomed to the sin-confess, sin-confess, sin-confess cycle for the rest of my life!

One of the above authors said, We are mentally bi-lingual! We possess the mind of Christ, but we still have the full capacity to think with the mind of the flesh. We will think the mental language we practice the most.

I am not proficient in another language, but people who are have told me that after submerging themselves in that new language culture, they actually begin to THINK in that new language.

What had for so long been the painstaking process of translating from their native language into the grammar of the new, after much practice and re-programming, found that their minds were bypassing the translation and beginning to think the new language. That is incredible!

Similarly, I believe that learning to think and respond biblically can be achieved with the same diligent practice. At first replacing wrong thought patterns with biblical and God-honoring thoughts is painstaking and tiring.

But through consistent practice we begin to respond rightly the first time! The switching of the wrong to the right begins to be more automatic as our thinking begins to be transformed. What a miracle - the power of the Word of God!

These are some practical steps I’m taking to gain new victory in this area:

Identify thought patterns that are selfish, unloving, vengeful, bitter, or in any way unbiblical. Confess them as sinful and repent.Gather your ammunition! Look up verses that speak to the put -off side of the thought and also verses that speak to the put-on side of the thought. For example, if a person struggles with trying to impress someone, Phil. 2:3 says Don’t live to make a good impression on others, (this is the put-off). But it goes on... Be humble, regarding others as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests but also for the interests of others. (This is the put-on).Write the verses on cards, and write out ways to apply the verse. In the above example you might write out questions to ask that would help you take an interest in or show love to that person instead of thinking about impressing them; questions about their work, family, finances, or what is God teaching them? What can you pray for them?Carry the cards with you, read them often, and commit them to memory.Practice diligently bowing the old thought to the Word of God and spring boarding to the new thought. Don’t stop until those new thoughts are having the prevailing influence in your thinking.

Sometimes I think this is too hard! Too difficult! Its totally against the grain of the old nature! But impossible? Absolutely not! Our goal is to glorify Christ by thinking according to His word. For it is His thoughts that make us truly Christ-like!

Have a wonderful New Year and keep practicing!