Covert Conditioning...

No enticement to sin occurs as an isolated incident. Every time I yield to temptation, I must realize that I am, at the same time, developing and strengthening a conditioned reflexive response to that which is the source of my temptation (a sinful habit).  As a result, my next encounter is made all the more difficult, because I have conditioned…disciplined my mind to see, to view, that source of my temptation from the perspective of the way it has met my needs in the past.  A further result of this conditioning, this discipline, is that I will find that I have trained the eyes of my mind to see only the temporary pleasures of sin, and not its heinousness.

At this point, I am no longer capable of a neutral response.  The stimulus associated with that temptation, a mere word, a sound, a sight, a smell, seemingly automatically triggers a response, and I find myself well down the road to falling once again, even though I have not consciously conjured up, considered, or entertained thoughts about it.  The sinful sense becomes the normal sense.  In my fight against sin, I find myself starting this round from the mat, already flat on my back, not standing firm on both feet to face the challenge of the confrontation in the strength of my Lord.

My hope?  First, recognizing, acknowledging His truth that, I am dead, and my life is hid with Christ in God.  Then, on that basis, constantly conditioning myself, disciplining myself, by looking to Him Who was tempted in all ways, just as I am, and yet, without sin.  Fixing my eyes on Him, that I might see and be overwhelmed with the beauty of holiness.  In His strength, in Him alone, mortifying, putting to death by starvation, the old man…drawing on, being nurtured by, the true life that flows from the true vine.  Finding my true satisfaction, the meeting of my every need, in Him, in Whom my life is hid.  Standing firm, in Him alone.  Experiencing the true blessedness of life in Him, that a new conditioned reflexive response (a holy habit) would be ever increasingly developed and strengthened, by His Grace, and for His Glory.