Helps To Overcome Sin In The Christian Life

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Some “how to’s” and principles are given below, which, it is hoped, might be a help to those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, to live a better life for God. If you think that there might be some areas that could with spiritual improvement but you could not improve them all at once then pray and start working on them one at a time.

1. We need to regularly read God’s Word, the Bible. God’s Word is “sound doctrine” or literally “health giving teaching” (1 Timothy 1:10) and “faithful sayings” for us. Colossians 1:27 shows that God wants to reveal His Word to us: “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery (truth revealed) …”.  Reading God’s Word can cause that “the eyes of our understanding be enlightened” (Ephesians 1:18); “faith to grow” perhaps even “exceedingly” (2Thessalonians 1:3), our “hearts might be comforted” (Colossians 2:2) and cause “joy and rejoicing” (Jeremiah 15:16).
2. Be obedient to God’s Word. Luke 11:28 “But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.” Isaiah 1:19 “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.” 2John 1:6 “And this is love, that we walk after his commandments.”
3. Also learn the blessings that God brought you into when you believed in Christ as your personal Saviour. Learn the difference between standing/relationship blessings and state/fellowship blessings. The following will help you start on that subject: https://wallingtongospelhall.org/the-spiritual-blessings-or-gifts-and-identity-of-the-believer-in-christ/
4. Every believer has received the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9) and the Holy Spirit is the power for victorious living as Galatians 5:16 says, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” Galatians 5:25 continues with, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk {literally “walk in step”} in {or “with”} the Spirit.” To walk in step with the Spirit is to be constrained and restrained by Him i.e. to allow Him to have His way in our lives.
5. Colossians 3:6 is in the context of v4’s “beguiling with enticing words” and v8’s “spoiling through philosophy and vain deceit, … ”. 3:6 says “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him”. What happened when we received Christ? We believed God’s Word and took our eyes of faith entirely off ourselves and put them entirely on Christ as our only hope.  Our only acceptance with God was through Christ. The Holy Spirit says, “Now walk like that.” Keep your eyes off yourselves and keep them on Christ. Believing and focussing on Christ through God’s Word is using the shield of faith (Ephesians 6:6).
6. Philippians 3:1 says “rejoice in the Lord.” and Paul said “neither count I my life dear unto myself, that I might finish my course with joy.” (Acts 20:24). So enjoy your blessings and the Blesser. Associated with this is Ephesians 5:20 “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;” and there are many verses encouraging believers to be thankful. This is not always easy but it is something that God commands us to do and being thankful pleases Him and is beneficial to us.
7. Christianity is the expulsive power of the greater attraction. The believer’s spiritual life has a love, which can be very faint at times, for the Lord and His things but our sinful nature loves to sin. So whatever you love the most you think about. Pray often that you will be given a deep love for the Lord and His things.
8. Due to the flesh within us, spiritual living is not always painless and can be hard. So prayer is necessary and perhaps use the Word of God in your prayers. Where appropriate take the passage that you have just read and praise and worship God for the various promises, statements and actions that God has made there.  Also pray: to “walk by faith and not by sight”; (2Corinthians 5:7), that “the eyes of our understanding be enlightened” (Ephesians 1:18); to “love righteousness and hate iniquity” (Hebrews 1:9), “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:16); to “walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25), to “rejoice in the Lord.” (Philippians 3:1); that we develop in “brotherly love” (1 Thessalonians 4:9) and that we “may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God!!” (Colossians 4:12). There are many other helpful short prayers across God’s Word but especially in the epistles. Then there are other requests which could be to: “perfect that which is lacking in your faith” (1 Thessalonians 3:10), have a deeper love for God’s people and work (Philippians 1:9), to walk and to please God more and more (1Thessalonians 4:1) and help to get on well with God’s people (Romans 12:10, 16) etc. God also wants the reality of our heart and so we should not repeat Scriptures so as to impress the believers or even to sound good to ourselves.
9. Be careful that you do not allow the pressures of life to take over from spiritual exercise. This can be difficult if work is pressurised and you have children. Also we need to be careful that IT does not take over our lives. Although the world may like you to immediately answer the latest e-mail, text, Facebook or Whatsapp etc message, do remember that before the Lord you are NOT obliged to do so. Since you trusted Christ as your Saviour you now belong to the Lord. 1Corinthians 7:23 says, “Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.” Ephesians 5:17 gives the principle, “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” To fulfil the Lord’s will there is therefore a need to control your life. If you are otherwise engaged for the Lord it is permissible to answer certain things perhaps hours or a day or more later. There might even be a need to cut out certain IT activities so that you will live better for the Lord. This is something that you will probably need to often think and pray about because the nice and the good can take away from or replace the best in your life.
10. Do not go near sinful places nor visit sinful websites. These can only encourage the indulgence of our sinful natures and result in sinful thoughts let alone anything else. A definition of the world is, “The organisation of human life which, being away from God, is based on the idea (or assumption) that all values are limited by the horizon of life and death.” 1 John describes the world as: lustful (2:16), transient (2:17), spiritually deluded (4:1), satanically motivated (5:19), antichristian (4:3) and hateful to the Christian (3:13).  It does not change as seen by: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” (John 15:18). Not being caught up in the world’s sins is God’s will for you: “Who gave himself for our sins (how amazing), that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.” (Galatians 1:4).  The internet can be a difficult place and so we might have to avoid certain ordinary articles because of the lust enticing advertisements that are associated with them. A certain believer will not have access to the internet because of the problem that it would be to him.
11. We could be angry with God, with ourselves, or with others which could degenerate to bitterness. Bitterness can also come from: resentment, jealousy/envy and continued disappointment and an unforgiving attitude. While we can feel justified by thrashing around in bitterness, it will additionally cause us to lose our joy and so is self-defeating. Furthermore we can be dishonest with ourselves and so we need the help of the God for insight into the reasons why we are angry and how to deal with them. A way to overcome anger and bitterness is to realize God’s amazing forgiveness of us (Colossians 3:13 “if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”). Additionally in times of bitterness we forget how much we are loved. So likewise meditate on the constant love of Christ for you (Galatians 2:20 “the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” As God so loved me before I was saved will He love me less now I am saved? Ephesians 3:16-19 “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.” John 13:1 “… having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” Vine’s dictionary “end” means ‘utmost degree’, and even though the disciples were soon going to fail. So Christ divinely loved a group of failures and He has not changed, Hebrews 13:8). Retaining bitterness can additionally adversely affect other areas of your life and keep you from a right spiritual focus. Committing your way to God, with perhaps all that you do not understand, and resting in God and/or forgiving someone is a choice. Likewise it is a choice to trust God rather than ourselves with the outcome of an offense (Romans 12:19 “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”). The Lord can handle life’s issues far better than we can and in His better time, which is, possibly always, not ours.
12. Time for prayer. We do not know how weak we are and that is our weakness. We need God and so we need to pray but this is not easy especially when you have a family. So the following is suggested so as to try and keep a balance both for God and the family. The husband and wife decide that at particular time of the day e.g. when you have finished washing up the evening meal, that you will say to the family that for the next fifteen, or whatever, minutes Dad/Mum will be responsible for the family matters and the telephone etc while Mum/Dad goes away to pray and s/he is not be to be interrupted at all. The first thing then for Mum/Dad to pray is that all will go well with the family and that s/he will be able to concentrate in worship/praise/prayer. Then later in the evening switch round so that the other spouse can worship/praise/pray.
13. With the confession of sin to God keep short accounts with God. Also do not just confess your sin to Him but add to it a short prayer as in the above suggestions.
14. List your temptations before God. He is not shocked but is saddened by them. With each temptation add a prayer so that with temptation Z you will pray for person A; with temptation Y you will pray for family B and with temptation X you will pray for assembly/missionary/situation C. So that whenever a temptation arises in your mind you will immediately pray for what you have associated with it. This can give you a flush of victory and you rejoice in it. However you need to continue in dependence because you can become independent and slide away from reckoning yourself dead unto sin.
15. Perhaps if you find some particular sins rather a problem then start the day with “keep me from …….” and “fill me with God’s truth, love, joy and will and ……”
16. Have you got your priorities right? Are you wasting time? We live in a world in which, if we are not careful, we can become engrossed with inconsequential matters, so that we do not have the time for true priorities. Eating, sleeping, working, rest and recreation are necessary but is my time being otherwise wasted. This does not help your spiritual progress. Also sometimes our worst enemies are not the obviously bad things but the necessary and even good things that we allow to be overdone.
17. Join a local assembly/church. The New Testament (NT) starts with newly born Christians becoming part of the local assembly (Acts 2:42) and the rest of the NT letters, including those to individuals, are in the context of the fellowship of the local assembly/church. Here with others you can learn and develop and be blessed and be a blessing to others. Hebrews 10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
18. Seek to use the gifts that God has given you and pray daily that God will give you the opportunities. 1Timothy 4:14 “Neglect not the gift that is in thee …” and 2Timothy 1:6 “Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee …” Luke 19:13 “And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.”  If you are preparing to meet a lost soul or spiritually help or visit a believer or taking a meeting then it is suggested that you spend at least two minutes of every hour of preparation in prayer. Preparation/study might bring you to the situation but prayer brings God to the situation.