'EVERYTHING IS PERMISSIBLE FOR ME BUT' 1 CORINTHIANS 6:12 NIV

Let your flesh know who's in charge. Look for ways to say no to yourself every day. If you do, you'll be able to do it when it really counts. We're not just talking about cardinal sins, but zeroing in on the undisciplined areas of our lives that we excuse, rationalize, or postpone dealing with. Paul writes, Everything is permissible for me but not everything is beneficial.

Everything is permissible for me but I will not be mastered of anything. Paul measures his actions by this yardstick: is it beneficial? Does it have the potential to control me?

How long are you going to keep telling yourself, I know I need to change, and I will tomorrow? You have the right to consume chocolate cake and ice cream at bedtime every night. It's permissible but not beneficial, especially if you want unblocked arteries, sugar free blood, a trim waistline, the ability to run a marathon or maybe just to keep up with your grand-kids. You have the right to spend your time and money as you please but you don't have the right to complain when the law of diminishing returns kicks in and you finish up in the poorhouse. You have the right to fill your mind with any kind of garbage you choose. But understand this, constant exposure to the wrong things will weaken you character, rob you of self-respect and eventually enslave you.

When it comes to replacing bad habits with good ones, only one person is going to make it happen; you. Your character is the sum total of your everyday choices. Day by day, what you think, what you choose and what you do, is who you become.

Evangelist Philip Jegede’s Reading Courtesy of DWFT: Matt 5:9, Rom 12:17-21, Jan 3:17-18, 1Jn 3:1-3 www.mpbs247.org