“And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of    the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Genesis 6:5

 To win any spiritual battle we must start by dealing with our imaginations and thoughts. It is the only way. We must train ourselves, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to recognize the thoughts as they come and deal with them immediately. If we entertain a thought long enough our imaginations will run wild with it. For those of us who feel like we are dealing with a bunch of thoughts at one time, the spiritual secret is to deal with one thought at a time.

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:8

 If we spend our time thinking on the things that are praiseworthy, we will not be thinking about the things that exalt themselves above God.

Here is a mistake we often make as Christians: You’re asking God to help you with a problem, bad habit, sin, etc. I will use a personal one, so as not to incriminate many of our readers. I love Hershey’s Kisses. Every so often my wife will fill up a bowl with Hershey’s Kisses and set them on the breakfast bar at the house for guests when they come over. Do you know how many of those a person can eat in a day? Evidently, a whole bowlful.

I have decided that I eat too many, but they are so good. I need to stop eating them and get it under control. I will need help. As any Christian would do, I take to the Father in Jesus name. “Lord, please help me not to eat these Hershey’s Kisses.” Every time I get the urge to eat some, I take it to the Father in Jesus name. “Lord, please help me to not eat the Hershey’s Kisses.” I repeat this process throughout the day. I realize by the end of the day that all I have done is talk to God about Hersey’s Kisses the whole time.

It would have been more helpful if I would have found something praiseworthy and spent my time praying to God and praising Him or his goodness and mercy. The Hershey’s Kisses would have never come into play and would not have been forefront in my mind all day long.