Resisting Sin

 Resisting Sin 

 

Romans 7:17 “ So I am not the one doing wrong it is sin living in me that does it”

 

 

For my brothers and sisters in Christ we often find ourselves faced with different sin that we are having trouble staying away from. This can come in many different fashions. For some it may be Pornography or lust, for others it may be greed or gluttony and for even others it may be sloth-fullness. The issue is not that your mind desires the sin but that the sin nature within you desires that sin and if not properly built up to withstand you will always be overcome by the power of sin which is death. 

 

The beauty of Christ is that He over came death, the power of sin, in His resurrection. Not only this but we have been given the Holy Spirit as our helper through life to face any obstacle ahead of us. So why then is it still so fleeting for most to push past the sin desire that we are born into?

 

The simple answer is who/what we spend our time with. Though we are all given the Holy Spirit and access to the Father we seldom use those tools in our everyday life. We fill our heads and ears with ideas and music from the world which sink into our subconscious (the part of us that moves without our implicit thought or effort) and drive our actions daily. It is only after sin has taken place that we begin to trace back the steps to see where we slipped in our ability to fight off sin. How is this you say? Well the beginning of the action of sin starts with a seed. Something you see or hear plants a seed into your mind and throughout the day your thoughts on that seed water and nurture that until it bears fruit. This may not happen in the same day or even the same week but if left unchecked the seed of sin will eventually bear fruit. To ensure that we have the ability to withstand our own sin nature we have to first, not give it any seeds to nurture and secondly, spend time with Christ and the Holy Spirit so that our spirit will be strong enough to withstand the urges of our flesh.

 

Hear me though I am not saying that you will no longer desire sin. The Bible never promises that the desire to sin will never be there but, it constantly commission us to not give in to those desires. “Resist the devil and he will flee”. But rest assured that the temptation will come back. 

 

So to insure we do not take in any seeds of sin we must be vigilant of our gates. Picture yourself as an Garden with your ears and eyes being the gates. What you allow through these gates will leave seeds and grow to bear fruit. So we have to be careful not to watch and listen things that will spoil our crop. For instance songs about sexual immorality or death and shows about those things as well. Letting those things in through your gates will leave seeds of sin/death. In turn watching and listening to things that provide Godly perspective and Life will leave and produce seeds of Christ.

 

In making sure that we spend adequate time with Christ and the Holy Spirit we must pray and read scripture daily! How much time and the amount of reading is going to be relative to the person and the connection that they personally have with God. That time is needed though and it is the only way for us to build ourselves up to withstand the urges from sin. This is because the more time we spend with Christ the louder his voice becomes and more time we have for His thoughts to become our thoughts and desires.

 

Again I strongly want to include that the desire to sin will always be there but what we allow into our mind and how much time we spend with the Holy Spirit and Christ will quiet and weaken the power that sin has in our life. Too often we condemn ourselves due to having a desire to sin but, sin desire is inherent and what we do in response is what determines how submitted to God we are. We are sinful by nature yet since God has redeemed us we have the ability to live a more righteous life through Christ. There will always be a battle between good and bad within you and the only way to resist and do right is by full surrender to Christ.