Durr

Matthew 5 tells us how to think to increase in happiness. It begins: “Blessed are the poor in Spirit.” Am I just a tiny man, fully dependent on a huge powerful God? Yes. I can’t even breathe without Him. Life is not great unless I focus on humility, and on caring about other people. When we start to realize how great God is, and how small we are…[Read more]

God told Adam and Eve: “If you eat from the fruit of “that” tree, you will certainly die. The question is… What did God mean by that? They kept breathing. What died when they ate the fruit? Their being allowed to live in paradise died. Their being allowed to live in a full blessing died (There were curses as a result of eating the fruit). But I…[Read more]

Ephesians 3:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of [a]the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

When someone has ripped us to shreds, we should consider quoting this verse twice a day until we can forgive them. We all believe…[Read more]

People try the drug Oxy and think, “That felt good, I want to do that as often as possible.” Instead, if they were thinking “Long-term” they would think: I don’t want to be homeless, broke, and broken.

Consider writing Long-term at the top of a piece of paper. Then as you read a bunch of articles write down the dates and titles of article…[Read more]

It is ten times harder to fight off temptation if you can’t get out of a depression. The first step towards success is to change your emotions. This is done by giving thanks. Firstly, think about what Jesus has done for you and thank Him. Don’t rush through this. Remember, part of all of our problems are caused by the fact that we don’t spend…[Read more]

Yesterday, I had a really rotten day. Today started out just as poorly. As an emergency measure, I made scripture a huge priority. I had 6 printouts of Bible verses on my bed and I read every one of them. Then I put on the audio Bible of the Psalms and listened to 7 of them.
One of the verses was 2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My gr…[Read more]

I bought a used top-quality (A2000) baseball glove from my buddy. It was not very well broken in, but I knew that over time I could break it in and make it a good glove. I used it in every warm-up to every game, I put glove oil on it all the time, but it was still too tough to be flexible enough to use in a game. It is now over 2 decades later,…[Read more]

Jacob wrestled with God. He continued wrestling with Him all night. He continued and demanded a blessing. Finally, a blessing was granted to him.

In today’s church wrestling for a blessing is not talked about much.

Deuteronomy 28:1-68 ESV “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that…[Read more]

Say often regarding quitting: I will never give up. None of us has ever fallen when we “Refused to give up.”
Second, say what the most important 3 things in your life are. Often our trials are not about these things. So when trials hit, give thanks often for the important things that you do have. Plus, the Bible does tell us to make giving tha…[Read more]

Wikihow wrote: “Build a support network for yourself. Overcoming your addiction will be easier if you have lots of support. Surround yourself with friends and loved ones who will be there for you.”

Consider praying: “Father, help me to turn from gambling, and fill me with Your love.”

There are two reasons to increase in love. First, the Bible s…[Read more]

Yesterday I was very tired and struggling. Instead of looking up Bible verses to learn from my situation I watched TV. Please learn from my stupidity.
Psalm 34:17-20 ESV When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”
One thing…[Read more]

Prayers for Quitting
Praying always is an important piece of the armor of God. Praying without ceasing means we pray often, and repeatedly.
But, our prayer must be thoughtful. If we are always praying: “Father, take away this spirit of gambling and fill me with Your love” we need to see that we are making “some progress.” For example, Jonny p…[Read more]

Today I watched “Jesus Revolution” on Netflix. It is my new favorite Christian movie. It is set in the early 70s and the theme of it is that people are searching for something real. Searching for a real answer. For the hippies of that generation, finally, someone started telling them about Jesus. And once they were fully committed to Him they…[Read more]

John 8:31 Jesus therefore said to those Jews that had believed him, If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples; 32 and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Thomasnelsonbibles.com noted: “Words the Bible uses besides “abide” (1 John 2:14) include “meditate” (Psalm 1:2, Joshua 1:8), “dwell” (Colossians 3:16), “b…[Read more]

The first step to taking thoughts captive is to make it a goal to do it “All the time.” There are two aspects of this. The first is to fight daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly for clean thoughts. The second is to have clean things to think about at our fingertips. Consider having a written “Top 7 things to think about.” Then add and subtrac…[Read more]

I recommended wearing a rubber band and snapping it when I had a gambling thought. I was shocked by the result. Background: The Bible says: “12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

When I praised the…[Read more]

Frustration rises if we don’t know if we can ever quit for good. Here is one idea about how to chart your current progress. Many chart their progress by how many days clean they have. That is good. But… instead of hearing that one has 18 days clean, I would rather hear:
I have 10 days clean and I now have the habit of daily Bible reading.
I have…[Read more]

Prayers
Consider praying: “Father, show me how wrong thoughts poison my life.”
“Father, help me to always raise the standards in turning from gambling.”
“Father, show me what my life can be like if I run instantly from gambling.”
“Father, take away my love of pleasure.”
“Father, help me to run from sinful pleasures. Teach me how to make You my pl…[Read more]

Life is more blessed and filled with Light when we submit to God.
Pick 3 things to work on so that your life improves. Things like submitting thoughts. How can you plan today and every day this week so that you will think about a specific prayer every hour so that you start to replace bad thoughts with good ones? Consider praying:
“Father, take a…[Read more]