sung at church on Sunday replayed
in her mind. "Is there part of you
your better self deplores?"
only been back at this walk of faith
a couple of months. It had been
many years since she'd darkened
the doors of a church, many years
since she'd prayed, many years
since she cared about living to please
God. And now, as she tossed and
turned, she kept going over the ways
she'd messed up and realized that
she deplored how she'd acted, how
she'd sinned. She truly wanted to be
different. She'd prayed that prayer
so often. Could it really be as easy as
that song on Sunday promised: "Do
you want the power to be a better
person? If you want it, it's yours!"
of running away is a God of grace,
and even as she counted up the
shameful acts of her day, God was
waiting for her in forgiveness. But
how could she get to the point where
her default actions were godly rather
than despicable?
What Jenn needed was a plan to
stop sinning. Sounds odd, doesn't it,
but the concept runs throughout
the New Testament. With the help
Jenn put together.
will think about Jesus and how He
reacted to situations (Hebrews 12:2).
HALT, and so she decided that
whenever she feels Hungry, Angry,
Lonely or Tired, she will stop,
identify the need and address it
before things get worse (Matthew
11:28�30).
years ago that said, "Ya gotta put on
alone, you need the power of God,
ya gotta put on the armor of God."
So she found a framed image of the
armor of God, taken from Ephesians
6:10�18, that she hung in her front
hallway, right above the basket
where she keeps her car keys.
Before she runs out the door in
the morning, she glances up at that
armor and claims the protection
of the armor of God.
to faith, she knew that it would be
tough to tackle all her troublesome
habits and reactions at once, so she
sat down and made a priority list (a
bit strange, but it worked for her).
She decided that for the month of
February, she'd work on fi nding
ways to feel angry without sinning,
and then she'd work on gossip in
March. One step at a time (2 Corin-
thians 12:9).
four, as she was concerned that with
too many points to remember, she'd
the day's events, and she knew that sleep wasn't going to
come easily. The images were ugly. The nasty words with
boss believe the worst about her co�worker... The expense
voucher she padded just a bit so she could have some extra
cash... The temptation of that trashy novel she just couldn't
resist. All in all it had been a pretty lousy day.