We have the responsibility to hear God's still, small voice and to act upon His thoughts, thereby shunning the deceitful input constantly coming from Satan.

All the medieval 'seven deadly sins' could be categorized as a facet of lust. God designed us to have proper desires, just as His desires are always proper.

If we could see the traffic of our perpetually wandering minds, we would be embarrassed as to how often it strays from God's thoughts and His laws.

Scripture defines virtue as a strength or power that disciplined people use to produce beautiful traits of goodness.

Paul heard continuous bad news, but he learned to control himself, controlling his anxiety by thinking positively and wholesomely.

Our annual, self-inflicted review of self can be humbling and even painful. We have a measure of control over our carnality which those in the world lack.

Self-control is the ability to focus our attention so that our decisions will not be directed by wrong thoughts. If we change our thoughts, we change our behavior.

The way to prevent sin is to let God's Spirit fill the mind. 'Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth' (Colossians 3:2).

Because we will ultimately turn into what we assimilate, we must take back the hijacked tool of meditation to drive out carnal thoughts.

We must don the whole armor of God, using His spiritual weapons to bring every thought into obedience to Christ, destroying the enemy's footholds.

It is our responsibility to glorify God. As obedient children, we bring Him honor; as disobedient children, we bring shame on Him and blaspheme His name.

God gifted Christians with a weapon to use in daily spiritual warfare: 'the sword of the Spirit' (Ephesians 6:17). We must wield it with faith and courage.

Everyone is out to acquire as much as possible for himself. The tenth commandment, however, governs this proclivity of human nature, striking at man's heart.

With God's Spirit, we can develop the overcoming skill, using self-control to make firm commitments to our small, yet progressively significant choices.

Jesus taught that all outward sin stems from inner inordinate desire. What we desire or lust after automatically becomes our idol.

A Christian must face temptation in this world. Our Savior wants us to overcome or conquer it, and He shows us how by His example when Satan tempted Him.

Solomon used self-reflexiveness to detach himself and remain disinterested to objectively describe the consequences of an array of life's experiences.

When we have severe trials, we can experience a divided mind, exercising a puny faith. Does God find us willing to surrender to Him in all circumstances?

We must avoid the world's extremes and sensual excesses in matters of dress and fashion, adopting instead humility, chastity, decency, morality, and self control.

If we don't cultivate the ability to meditate on a regular basis, we run the very real risk of losing our spiritual identity and letting someone take our crown.

By exposing the negative self-talk, we can turn the self-imposed words of death into words of life.

Coveting—lust—is a fountainhead of many other sins. Desiring things is not wrong, but desiring someone else's things promotes overtly sinful behavior.

One commentator said all public crime would cease if this one law was kept. Another said every sin against one's neighbor springs from breaking this commandment.

Any thought not aligned to God's Spirit is satanic, including bragging, putting others down, being puffed up with arrogance, or putting anything before God.

Relationships in the church have been charred by loose lips and careless tongues described in James 3:2, setting on fire the course of nature by hell.

The church grapevine is good at spreading news, but it can be evil when it spreads gossip and rumor. Gossip actually harms the gossip himself. Here's how.

True Christianity is no cakewalk into eternal life, but a life and death struggle against our flesh, the world, and a most formidable spirit adversary.

Jesus resisted Satan with the knowledge of God, resisting appeals to vanity, using power selfishly resisting to lust of the flesh, eyes, and pride of life.

We must wrest control of the narrative away from Satan, the Destroyer, expert in promulgating misinformation, focusing instead on the end of the story.

It is impossible to cultivate self-control unless one uses God's Spirit to reprogram the desires of the heart from self-centeredness to submission to God.

Feelings and emotions may throw our faith off course. Our moods are mercurial and we must control them with daily prayer and Bible study.

We all have hungers, from a desire for certain foods to a yearning for success. Jesus teaches that we are blessed when we hunger for righteousness.