Aha! A new issue of THE V.O.I.C.E. is finally here! Thank you for holding out so long. I know most of you are still somewhere up the mountain of assurance waiting for the next step. Hopefully, many of you have gone far beyond the first two steps. No doubt, there are some who have gone in the wrong direction. It may be that you've become disheartened in the way, and it just seems that the temptations are too great, past sins are too haunting, and present pleasures are too alluring. You make some progress, and then quickly digress. You have a strong passion to do right, and then the passion dies out and you fail. Around certain people you are inspired and speak boldly for God, but moments later, around other people, you are as timid as a mouse for God and yield to their sin.

You had gone so long without committing that sensual sin, and have now fallen once again and feel you're back to square one; it's useless to even try. You had been so faithful in your time with God, but have slipped back into the mode of putting off your devotions, and now it's literally been over a week since you've even had private time with God. Boy, you're finding out that the devil is a master at waving your failure in your face and telling you, “Might as well give up now, look at all the time you wasted that you'll have to make up all over again.” It looks like you have tumbled head long down the mountain and lost all the progress you had made. It's at this point you will be tempted to throw in the towel and head back for Egypt, or as in our case, head back for the valley fog. The devil wants you to think that you've come to the perfect place to just give up.

Believe it or not, you have not come to the perfect place of giving up, you have actually come to the place of the third step up the mountain. You might be thinking, “But Phil, I have failed at the first two steps, so what makes you think I'm ready for the third?” Hear me out on this before you give up. It's not that you have failed at the first two steps as much as you have been inconsistent with them. It's not even that you have lost ground on the first two steps; remember, before you started this climb you had NO ground. Think about it, you understand the importance of that first step, virtue, and have experienced some real victory in that specific area, but you can't seem to get a permanent victory there. You began a closer walk with the Lord with prayer and Bible reading, but you just can't seem to be consistent with it. Why? Well, it's because you need to take the third step up the mountain.

Think with me. You are facing a battle that you have never faced before. The reason this is true is because you are at a place you have never been before. “What place is that?” you ask. You have come to the third step of the mountain. Before, you were never challenged to be consistent with your purity and devotion to God. Now you're facing a new challenge of sticking with those two dedications. That in itself IS the third step up the mountain. See, you couldn't be facing this battle unless you had reached a point on the mountain where it has become a challenge. Had you no desire for purity and devotions, you would not be challenged with the battle of consistency in these areas. Let me explain.

Remember some of the unique aspects of these seven steps up the mountain we discussed. First, they must be taken in the divine order they are recorded in. (You have to take the step of purity first and then the step of knowledge. You cannot know God until there is inward purity.) I want you to see another unique aspect of these steps: in order to maintain the previous steps taken, you must be moving on to the next step. You cannot maintain what you have without the discipline and character of the coming step. You have learned about virtue and you are starting to get to know God, but now you must take the next step to be able to maintain the first two steps.

Nothing in the Christian life is static, nothing can simply maintain at the exact same level; everything in the Christian life is dynamic, it is always changing either for the better or the worse. If you don't progress to the next step, you automatically digress backwards. The best way I can explain this is riding a unicycle. Anyone who has ever learned how to ride a unicycle knows one thing to be true: it doesn't matter how you may have mastered all the techniques, in order to be successful, you must keep the unicycle moving.

So what exactly does that mean? The reason you are struggling with virtue and knowledge is that you need temperance to maintain them. Don't keep pounding your head against a brick wall in defeat because of inconsistencies, but keep moving on to the next step. It is in the taking of the next step that you will find more firm victory in the first two steps. So let's talk about the step of temperance.

STEP THREE: TEMPERANCE = THE ABILITY TO SAY NO TO YOURSELF

I Peter 1 tells us to add to our knowledge, temperance. Temperance is self-control, self-restraint, self-denial. The reason you may be struggling greatly with being consistent in purity and devotions is that you have never learned to say “no” to yourself and “yes” to God. Have you learned to say “no” to yourself when you are tempted to lose your temper, shoot a nasty look, and speak sharp words? When you feel self-indulgent and you'd just rather watch TV after a hard day than spend that time in God's Word, do you have the ability to say “no” to yourself? When everything inside of you is dying to gossip, dying to look at the indecent picture, or dying to say “yes” to some sinful pleasure, do you have the self-control, the temperance, to say “no” and do what is right when you absolutely don't feel like doing it?

You need to focus now on this step up the mountain. Get your eyes off past failures and begin focusing on this step before you. Literally, you need to begin practicing the discipline of saying “no” to yourself. Your problem very well may not be a lack of desire for God's Word or a heartbeat for purity. Your problem is that you have never learned self discipline. You just don't know how to make yourself do what you know you ought to do. You have become accustomed to giving in to what is easy, enjoyable, and soft for you. You need to gain the ability over yourself to say “no” when you need to say “no.” Let me suggest a few things that might help you in this step:

• Fast from lunch for a week and spend the time in prayer and devotions.
• Take a media fast from all television, Internet, and world news.
• Learn to measure your words before you say them.
• Keep a tight rope on your emotions and don't allow yourself to be an emotional “yo-yo.” (Seek to be consistent in your attitudes with others.)
• Discipline your thought life to the point where you will not think something that you could not publicly speak or do.
• When you feel down, don't allow yourself the normal self indulgences with food, pampering, or laziness.
• Get up early in the morning and wake up joyfully even if it cracks your face.

Some of this may seem crazy to you, but it's the next step up the mountain. As you take this step up the mountain, what you will find is that the other two steps become less of a moment by moment struggle.

Perhaps this is a good time to be reminded that this climbing up the mountain thing is not easy. Remember, giving all diligence is what it takes to get up the mountain. Get your eyes on the goal of the sweet assurance of your salvation and don't allow anything to get in your way. Begin working on this step of temperance and watch as God both works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. Endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ, and be certain that there is a coming reward for your labor.

Until next time...