Deliberative Acts of the Will

October 7th, 2025
by John Thweatt

I’m in the middle of studying for a sermon and I came across this quote from Robert Mounce,

“Holiness of life rarely progresses apart from the deliberative acts of the will. While sanctification is gradual in the sense that it continues throughout life, each advance depends upon a decision of the will.”

The quote came in the context of Romans 12:1-2, but what deliberative act of the will have you made recently to be holy? What decisions have you made that have led to being more like Jesus?

One of the things I did several weeks ago is to make a concerted effort to take my thoughts captive. As I meditated on the battles I fight in my mind, I came to see that much of it was coming from the mindless scrolling of social media. When I had a few moments, or when I was finished for the day, I habitually picked up my phone and stated scrolling.

So, here are a few of the intentional steps I took:

I deleted Twitter totally. The negativity was cancerous to me…I got rid of it.
I took the FB app off my phone’s home screen. To get to FB I have to intentionally go through a few steps and that has cut down on the draw.
I did the same with Instagram. I haven’t been on this app regularly for a while, so this wasn’t that hard.
The single greatest move I made is to intentionally limit my phone time.

I haven’t set screen time limits, but I just decided to see how few hours I could spend on it. My competitive mind loves this game and I’m competing with myself…last week it was down to 1 hour and 15 minutes a day. On Sunday the total for the day was 20 minutes!

I admit, I am on my desktop and laptop, but I’m doing all I can to keep that focused on answering emails and writing what I need to write for sermons and blogs like this. That change has been noticeable.

I don’t find the distraction of posts that anger me, I don’t worry about how many people have responded to my comment, and I find myself thinking and praying more than I do scrolling. I’ve never been on the phone for hours upon hours, but just a simple step has led to more godliness in my thought-by-thought battle.

I’ve really decided I have a smart phone for two reasons—Music, I do listen to I-tunes as I drive and at home, and Waze when I travel. If I could find a way to get both of those on a flip phone I’d do it now.

What steps are you taking? If you aren’t taking steps forward you are moving backward.