January 8
“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11:36
I have started the year with these points because I have found them to be really helpful, foundational concepts in our efforts to overcome temptation. There are many other good ideas and thoughts that Lord willing we will discuss in time, but if you are really struggling with persistent, deeply ingrained sin, perhaps even we could say addictions, then these are some foundational ideas that I do believe you will find at least helpful if not critical to overcoming sin in your life. So let me summarize these briefly here.
(1) First the realization that we have little strength to overcome these sins on our own, and any amount of resolutions and human effort can be thwarted by the deceitfulness of our fleshly desires.
(2) In Christ alone is the victory; He provided the provision for eternal life through His sacrifice on the cross, and He provides the daily grace and ability we need to walk worthy of Him.
(3) Even the will and desire to overcome sin is a gift from God. Often we sin because we want to and walking in righteousness just isn’t a priority for us. We need to ask God for a steadfast desire and determination to not sin.
(4) Hating evil is something many of us have lost. We need to ask God to renew our hatred of evil and make us repulsed by sin. This also is a gift from Him.
(5) Concern for others, for family members, for other Christians, and for unbelievers is a strong deterrent for sin. Sin is pure selfishness acting out, and concern for others is just the opposite. Ask God to give you an overriding concern for the welfare of others.
(6) Asking God to ordain our victorious Christian life, to declare that it will be and then bring it to pass by His doing (because of our weakness and inability), I have found to be really helpful in giving me a renewed confidence and desire to overcome.
(7) We access Christ’s victory through prayer and particularly intense crying out to God. God particularly answers prayers for godliness and victory when we cry out to Him. It is essential to make crying out to God a regularly used weapon in our arsenal.
So these make up a solid foundation from which we can build. It’s all from Him and through Him and to Him. Our own weaknesses and inabilities are glaring. Our blindness is startling. Our failures are immobilizing. While we struggle to overcome our own sins and failures, others stumble and perish. Christ is the answer to this question of how do we overcome habitual sin in our lives, and only as we fully recognize our inability and access His ability, through crying out in prayer and obeying what He says to do, and doing this day after day until it become automatic, will we achieve lasting victory.