Inputs shape our souls

“You can’t form a godly soul with a godless habit loop.”  This statement from Thad Cardine, Substack, floored me.  It is so simple and yet it is as profound a statement as you’ll ever read.  Spiritual maturity simply takes spiritual discipline.

He went on to say, “You can’t binge on moral compromise and expect to wake up with virtue. You can’t flirt with sin all week and expect intimacy with God on Sunday. Stop pretending your inputs don’t shape your soul. They do. Every podcast, post, swipe, scroll, shortcut, or silence is forming you—or deforming you.”

Forming or deforming!  Everything we do is one of the other…there is no middle ground.  I was talking to a group of men this past Tuesday.  We are reading Rediscovering Holiness by Packer and the conversation turned to how do we fight the flesh?  How do we stay holy?
Yesterday morning I was thinking about it as I journaled and I realized that so much of my prayer time is asking God to help me walk with Him step by step, but I’m not going back far enough…I must learn to follow God thought by thought.

It is there that the battle is won or lost.  My thoughts form or deform me.  I’ve found a real helpful thing…as I try to pray in the thoughts, when a thought comes to my mind that is not holy…instead of focusing on it and letting it form and give birth to sin, I simply say, “God, that isn’t a thought worthy of our conversation,” and move on.  It’s amazing how quickly the thoughts flee and I’m free to walk in intimacy with Him!