Secret of Contentment Part V

Let’s first talk about our physical eyes. Think about your daily choices. What are you reading other than this blog? What magazines, what books, what emails? What message is that magazine sending? The pictures, are they of scantily-clad women who are way too thin to be healthy? Are the articles about how to “please your man in bed”? Or just as bad, are the articles all Hollywood gossip-based rhetoric?

Ask yourself, “Is this helping my walk with Jesus?” Obviously not. Look at the advertisements, even though they are for perfume or clothes, isn’t the underlying message usually about sex? Be honest with yourself, if your daughter was reading that magazine would you be proud, or horrified?

What about that novel you can’t seem to put down? A great story line (or maybe not so great) spiced up with some pretty descriptive sex scenes? Perhaps you do not realize that is how this world packages pornography for consumption by women.

Satan knows that for women, our brain is our most erogenous zone. So he is out to stimulate you through what you read in hopes of spoiling the purity that Jesus wants for you. Make no mistake – you are in a battle for your mind. Whose side are you on?

What are you selecting for “entertainment” purposes? This is especially challenging for the men in our society since men are more visually stimulated than women. But we are by no means immune to this kind of attack.

And what about those emails? There is some pretty dirty stuff zooming around cyberspace. Perhaps some of that smut has found its way into your inbox? The moment you recognize it for what it is, stop reading it and delete it. Then go to your deleted items file and delete it again.

Your computer will prompt you “Are you sure you want to permanently delete this file?” Yes, you do want to permanently delete these files!

For many of us, there may be images burned into your retinas from an earlier time when we were not so discerning as we are becoming now, for from a moment when an image was placed before our eyes, unbidden.

Anytime and every time these images flash into your mind, like an uninvited pop-up, you can press the spiritual and emotional "delete" button. Satan will say, "You don't want to permanently delete this file do you?"

Yes you do. And you can ask Jesus for help with this. He can empty the trash can in your mind. And just like a garbage can in real life, it will need to be taken to the curb often.

You don't need high fashion, expensive perfume, or to look like you have the body of a victim of famine. You don't need the trashy advice the world is trying to sell you. You don't need to be "entertained" by violence, gossip, or pornography.

You need Jesus. He is yours for the asking. Have you received Him? Once He is yours, you can just make a practice of wanting what you have. What a relief. What simplicity. What joy and contentment.

I am praying, readers, that you will make Jesus your own. :)