50 Days of Wisdom

The first essential component to self-control, of spiritual self-discipline, is to remember who owns you and that you're not in charge of your own life. The second is to remember the covenant of salvation, which was a covenant of obedience, and to keep that covenant. The third is to recognize all sin as a violation of our relationship to God. It violates the intimacy that we share with a loving Lord and a gracious Savior. A fourth principle in this matter of self-control, of spiritual self-discipline, is that if you're going to be self-disciplined, you have to learn to control your imagination. Peter alludes to this issue in verse 14 of 1 Peter 1 when he says, "Do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance." Before you were a believer, you really were subject to the whimsy of your own lusts. You had no real ability to control your heart, your mind, your desires, or your imagination, which is the place where sin is conceived, fantasized, and energized. So, if we are going to control sin, it has to be controlled in the imagination because that's where lust is activated. Listen, it's very difficult for us to eliminate from our lives every thought about sin because sin is ubiquitous; I mean, it's everywhere. You hear sinful words and see sinful things all the time. And people thrust them in your face. And it would be very difficult to remove the thought of sin, the fleeting thought, the passing thought, the awareness, and the sensitivity to sin that is initial. Therefore, where you really have to go to work is in your imagination, because that's where initial exposure to sin develops and elicits your involvement and ultimately results in your iniquity. That's where the real battle is fought. Listen, the fact that you live in a fallen world and that you're exposed to sin around you all the time through personal contacts, the media, what you read, and all of the other things is not an excuse for your iniquity. Why? Because here's how it works, verse 15, "When lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death." You see, what produces sin is not something outside of us but something inside of us. It's something that takes that sinful image, circumstance, situation, thought, word, concept, or action that's in the world around us and begins to internalize it. That's when the real problem develops. Temptation occurs when we are internally carried away by our lust, because lust begins to conceive, and it brings forth the child, and the child is sin. So, what is the imagination? It's the place where lust is conceived and entertained, and the fantasies begin to develop. Sin works in your imagination. That means, the problem is not the environment, exposure to something, or something in the world; the problem is us. We are the problem. And that's why it's very, very important how you feed your imagination and what you put in there. Because, beloved, that's where the battle is fought. Look, the battle has always been fought at the same point: inside. There will always be external influences. And you can't run and hide from that, because that's not the problem. The problem is the internal lust that is generated in an imagination that is not subject to the Word of God. Therefore, self-discipline begins with our theology. We know who owns us, we know the price that was paid for us, we remember the covenant that we made with the Lord when we came to Him, and we recognize all sin as a violation of our relationship to God. And then it moves out of our theology into our own personal spirituality, and self-discipline becomes a matter of controlling our imagination. And if you are to be successful at doing that, you must fill your heart and mind with the Word of God so that it comes ringing loud and clear and activates your conscience whenever you are exposed to sin. Repent and believe! GTY.org (90-131) – Fundamental Christian Attitudes: Self-Discipline, Part 2

Today's Wisdom

Day: 991

August 5, 2026

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My name is Mark Paul from Wauchula, Florida, and like the Apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 1:14, "I know that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent." Consequently, my goal is to leave a legacy that will continue to advance the kingdom of God long after I have departed. In other words, bear fruit for eternity. And by simply reading and sharing my free eBooks, you too become contributors to the advancement of His kingdom. Thank you for partaking in this endeavor, and I look forward to greeting you on heaven's shore.

The Truth in Love,

Mark Paul - Servant of God

Now grant, O Lord, that when the souls who read these books cast their eyes upon these lines, their minds may be illuminated and their consciences convinced and awakened, that they may see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and be converted so that You may heal them. Amen!