Transforming Your Mind (Part 4) Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Transforming Your Mind (Part 3) -------------------------- Date: 2/14/2001 Keywords: "Lord" "Shepherd" "want" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passages*: Psalm 23: 1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. Philippians 4:12-13 12. [Paul, while in prison stated] "I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13. I can do all things through Him [Jesus] who strengthens me. Question 1. How is the statement, "I shall not want," different from "I will not be tempted"?   2. How is "I shall not want" different from the statement, "I shall not need"?   3. What would you say was Paul’s secret to living a contented life?   4. How do these verses apply to struggles with pornography?     Practical help Remember in the first study a few days ago, I shared with you how the first verse from the 23rd Psalm strengthened me to resist sexual temptation? I continued to meditate on the fact that the Lord was my shepherd and that if He would choose to be my shepherd, then I would obey His will. The last four words of this verse are incredibly powerful. They are an affirmation that I will choose to be content with what my Shepherd gives me. I choose to accept what God supplies me through righteous and healthy channels to be enough for me. I choose not to allow my appetites to control me, because I don’t have to. You see, I have the Lord as my protector and my shepherd. Paul did the same thing. He focused on Christ, his shepherd, and this gave him the strength to be content — even in a prison cell. When we choose to accept and be grateful for our circumstances, we begin to see how God is really good to us by not allowing everything we might want to take over our lives. If you want more peace in your life, then resist your craving for more pleasures. Instead, begin to reflect on the pleasures He gives you moment by moment, and you will begin to discover that your cup is overflowing. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2001 by eXXit *"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."