Foutain of Faith Baptist Church

Memory Verse—“But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses (mental faculties) trained to discern good from evil. ” Hebrews 5:14 (NASB)

1. Volition. God made us free; He gave us the ability to choose. The most important and the smartest choice we can make everyday is to have a positive, receptive attitude to the Word of God (Gen. 2:16-17; Psalm 37:4-5; Matt. 6:33).

2. Mentality. If we are positive, we will look at the whole array of things we can do with the mind and choose to use it for Bible study. This is where the battle is really fought in the spiritual life. The enemy does not want us to use our minds to understand the Word of God (2 Cor. 4:3; 10:4-6; Eph. 6:10-17).

3. Conscience. As we study with a receptive attitude to the Word, our conscience becomes a storehouse for truth. What we put in our conscience becomes the norms and standards by which we live. When we are positive and willing to immediately confess our sins to God, we can live with a clear conscience (1 John 1:9; Rom. 14).

4. Emotion. The emotion is the appreciator of the soul and responds to what is stored in our conscience and the make up of our mentality. It gives us the full capacity to enjoy our physical and spiritual life. The more we are oriented to the Word, the more capacity we have to live a wonderful life regardless of our external circumstances (Prov. 8:32-36; 2 Cor. 12:7-10; Ps. 119:33-40).

5. Self-consciousness. When we have an attitude of humility we will base our self-image on what the Word says about how God sees us in Christ, then we can accept ourselves. By developing spiritual self-esteem we are able to be healed in spite of the pains of the past and be freed from the strong holds that previously bound us in sin. Because we are looking at the Living Word through the written Word, we see ourselves realistically, and can put our strengths and weaknesses in perspective (Phil. 3:4-11; 4:8; Rom. 8:24-32).