Staying in Bounds

• The adversary targets three areas to trip up believers: money, intoxication, and physical intimacy.

• Talk about money openly before marriage, not after.

• Alcohol and drugs deaden the mind and weaken your resolve. Protect your clarity.

• Physical intimacy starts in the mind before it ever reaches the body.

• Control your thinking, and everything else stays in bounds behind it.

• Jesus said lust in the heart is already adultery. God looks at the heart, not just the act.

• Take every thought captive. What's in your head is your responsibility.

  
  

Staying in Bounds

There are three areas of life the adversary seems to circle back to over and over, trying to trip up believers. Money. Intoxication. Physical intimacy. Different doors, same intent. He wants you out of bounds.

Money

Agreeing on how you'll handle money matters more than most couples realize going in. As you get closer to marriage, actually talk about it. Don't assume you're on the same page just because you love each other. Say the numbers out loud before the wedding, not after.

Intoxication

Whether it's alcohol or drugs, you never want to lose control of your own mind. Alcohol and drugs deaden it. They can loosen resolve you didn't even know you were leaning on, and suddenly a boundary that felt solid an hour ago doesn't feel so solid anymore.

Protect yourself here. The adversary wants to keep you from being who you really are, mentally, physically, and spiritually. He can't get to a clear mind nearly as easily as he can get to a dull one. Stay in bounds, and don't give him any place to work.

Romans 13:13-14 puts it plainly. Walk honestly, decently, as in the day. Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness. Put off the flesh and its cravings, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ instead.

Physical Intimacy

Living God's Word as a family, physical intimacy included, falls into the category of the renewed mind. That's where it starts and where it has to be won.

Thoughts are the seeds of everything. Every word you'll ever say started as a thought first. Every action you'll ever take started as a thought first. Physical intimacy works the same way. You think about it before your body ever responds to it. That's exactly why we can't let our thinking wander out of bounds and expect the rest of us to stay in bounds behind it.

Romans 12:3, in its fuller sense, says to control your thinking so it doesn't get out of bounds. Control every thought. Every decision that follows a thought. Every word. Every action. All of it stays inside the bounds God set, or none of it does.

Jesus went straight to the root of this in Matthew 5:27-28. Whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Not once the act happens. Already, in the heart. Because that's what God is actually looking at. The heart of a man. The heart of a woman. Not just the behavior everyone else can see.

That's how important it is to control your thoughts. Don't let yourself drift out of bounds up there. It's your head. What's in it is your responsibility, nobody else's. Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, to the standard of the Word. That's how the love of God actually gets lived out through a renewed mind, not a managed behavior.