Key Bible Verse: "If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It is better to enter the Kingdom of God half blind than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell" (Mark 9:47). Bonus Reading: Mark 9:42-48

As you consider specific areas of temptation, you must be willing to take dramatic action. Be radical for the sake of holiness. Jesus' extreme example [in Mark 9:47] illustrates how we must be willing to do whatever it takes to avoid sin.

I faced this kind of difficult decision with my membership at a local gym. I'd signed up for a yearlong commitment and started working out in the mornings.

But a few weeks later I knew something had to change. I was consistently being tempted, and was often succumbing to the temptation to look lustfully at women.

For me this was an important battleground. I prayed about it and felt strongly that God wanted me to take radical action and stop going. I'll be honest. This was a difficult decision for several reasons. First, because I still had to pay for a full year of my membership at the gym. But also because many of my Christian friends were members and they weren't struggling to guard their eyes like I was.

It wounded my pride to admit that I couldn't handle being there. I wanted to be above the temptation. But I wasn't. So I stopped going and started working out at home.

—Joshua Harris in Not Even a Hint

My Response: What temptation that others may be able to handle must I avoid?

Thought to Apply: The price of purity is high, but impurity is dirt cheap.—SOURCE UNKNOWN

Adapted from Not Even a Hint (Multnomah, 2003) by permission.

Prayer for the Week

Lord, give me the determination to do whatever it takes to stay sexually pure, both physically and mentally.

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