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WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God’s principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God’s manual for life. AN INVITATION TO YOU: To follow this blog, click here.  If this blog has blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! ______________________________________       Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today’s blog post:       https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/WWW_Podcast_Episode_10_2020-03-09_Not_Will_Power_but_Word_Power.mp3 _______________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, your Virtual Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, March 9, 2020. Today’s Podcast is Episode #10 in Series 2020 and is titled “Not Will Power, but Word Power." Over my lifetime, I've struggled to overcome the bad habit of speaking before thinking. I can't tell you how many times I've put my foot in my mouth only to take it out and put the other foot in. I am a communicator by nature and by calling, and I love to communicate. This is the reason Satan fights me in the area of my tongue. Of one thing we can be sure, the enemy will always focus his attacks on our areas of strength by targeting the weaknesses that go along with those strengths. For example, those of us who communicate well are susceptible to talking before thinking or talking too much. But the Bible warns that if we talk before we think or if we talk too much, we will eventually sin (Proverbs 10: 19).  Well, as always, the Bible is true. When I speak before I think or when I talk too much, I inevitably get myself into trouble. And getting out of trouble is much more difficult than getting into it, I can assure you. As always, I went to the Lord with my problem. I told Him that no matter how hard I tried, I kept engaging my mouth before engaging my brain. The harder I tried not to talk before thinking, the more I talked before thinking. I felt just like the Apostle Paul who wrote in Romans 7: 15-24: "I don’t do what I want to do. Instead, I do what I hate. . . Although I have the desire to do what is right, I don’t do it.  I don’t do the good I want to do. Instead, I do the evil that I don’t want to do. What a miserable person I am! Who will rescue me...?" Have you ever felt this way? Have you ever wanted desperately to stop doing something--like, perhaps, to stop smoking, or to stop taking drugs, or to stop viewing pornography, or to stop overeating, or to stop spending too much money, or to stop yelling at your kids--but, no matter how hard you tried, you just kept messing up? If so, you are not alone. One of the biggest reasons that bad habits are hard to break is that we try to overcome them in our own strength. And that, my friend, is impossible. We as humans have no power in ourselves to overcome the flesh. We need Jesus Christ in our lives to live the overcoming life through us. So, the first step to overcoming a bad habit once and for all is to be born again--to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. Why? Because only Jesus Christ can set us free. Nothing else or no one else can set us permanently free. Yes, we may have some success using will power alone, but that success will eventually fizzle out. What we need to overcome permanently is not will power, but Word power. The power of God's Word as found in the Holy Bible. Jesus is God's Word made flesh as we read in John 1: 1.  Jesus said in John 8: 32, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." The truth is found in God's Word. As we learn the truth and apply it to our lives, we will become freer and freer. In fact, we will be free to the degree that we know and obey the Word of God. Once we have Jesus living within us,