When You Think About the Ocean..

This week, I had the great opportunity to attend a summer camp with my church (restonbible.org). During one of the evening services, one of our band members Jesse Trask shared an awesome example of how we can defeat sin in our lives while giving his testimony.

Jesse told all of us 200 or so kids in the audience, "Don't think of an elephant". Then proceeded to ask us what we had thought of. Of course, we had thought of an elephant. Then he said, "Now, think of an ocean". We thought about an ocean. Jesse explained that "not thinking" of the elephant is like "not thinking" of sin. Even if your intentions are good, and you try so hard NOT to focus on your sin, it still ends up consuming your mind because you're focusing so hard to defeat it.

When we set our hearts and minds towards Christ, our earthly thoughts about sin and trying to overcome it ourselves naturally die down. When we are told to think about an ocean, we forget completely about when we were previously told not to think about the elephant.

 "8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." Philippians 4:8-9