Substance Abuse
The third C is to Correct all thinking. The correction of our thinking means that we get to choose what we think about. You do not have to allow your thinking to be controlled by random happenings. You do not have to allow others to control your thinking; you can take charge of your own thinking and bring it into a Biblical pattern, or as the scriptures said, into the obedience of Christ. God teaches us how to do this in several scriptures. First in Romans 12:1-3, God says, “1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”
If you are going to bring your thinking into the obedience of Christ, it begins with putting your faith in God. You must cast out the thought of yourself as being great, and humble yourself to God. Most people have a very high estimation of themselves. They believe that they are good people and even with all of their problems are still as good or better than others. God says here that if we are going to be changed, we must see ourselves as God sees us, as sinners in need of salvation.
God has shown us the truth about our condition in the Bible when He said in Romans 3:10, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:” You and I are not righteous in our own selves. We are sinners who have broken God’s law, and as lawbreakers we deserve the punishment for our sin. The Bible says in Romans 6:23a, “For the wages of sin is death;” meaning that we deserve to be separated from God forever in hell. However God showed us in the previous verse that He has dealt to every man the measure of faith, meaning that anyone who will see themselves in the same way that God sees them (as sinners in need of a Saviour), and will believe upon Jesus Christ’s death burial and resurrection to be the payment for their sin will be saved. God said so in Romans 10:8-10, “8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
To believe in your heart that God gave Jesus to be the substitute for your sins and call upon Him to save you is to receive the gift of eternal life as it says in Romans 6:23b, “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
