out of the abundance

"Immorality, in any real sense, begins not in an act- but in the thoughts we allow ourselves to entertain." -Stacy Rinehart 

I recently attended a ladies' retreat in Estes Park. Unfortunately I went with very low expectations. I had been to many retreats before and always experienced the same high that faded with the decline of the mountain.

I am so pleased to say that God exceeded my expectations in a huge way. The speaker was talking about our joy in the Lord. I listened intently. I have been saved for so long, but recently have felt joyless. She explained, "if you have lost the joy of the Lord then you have unrepentant sin in your life." I struggled with this statement because I could not for the life of me figure out what habitual, (continual), sin I was in. But God is so faithful. A few weeks later as I continued to ask the Lord about this, He answered me through my study in "Disciplines of a Godly Woman." I needed to discipline my mind.

It can be very difficult for a Christian to repent of their sin when it is not something you can see. I began to realized how much I allowed myself to digress on a mental path that led my heart to sin. The more I prayed for the Lord to help me recognize it, I did! I discovered that I was living almost constantly in another world where I was free to do and say anything I felt at the time. This was resulting in a bad attitude, was affecting my desire to spend time with the Lord and was even disrupting my relationship with my husband and some of my friends.

So discipline of the mind...that is my current task at hand.  1 Chronicles 28:9 says  "...for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts." Praise the Lord that He can see past my outward appearance and understand the INTENTIONS of my thoughts. I have begun to see fruit from the discipline of my mind. I have been able to enjoy the gifts that the Lord has given me and have been restrained from many outburst of sin that would flow so quickly from my mouth beforehand.

I know that the exercise of disciplining my mind will be one that I have to keep up for the rest of my life. But just like physical exercise, I am so pleased with the results that I am motivated to continue committing my thoughts to God. Take on the challenge friends, it is so worth the joy you will find!

"For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."- Matthew 12:34