Beating Sin... really???

Bill Perkins (in his book When Good Men Are Tempted) talks about the 3 ways to surely fail in your attempt to win the battle against sin, particularly, lust.  He talks about overpowering, reforming and starving your sin (lust.)  This idea of making your own plan to overcome sin is empty or void of hope.  I have tricked myself into thinking that I could beat a certain sin by “willing” it, or by discipline.  I have failed every time.  Sometimes I’ve been able to hold out for a little longer than other times.  But, in the end I’ve always failed.  The problem here isn’t just that I’ve sinned again, but now I’ve sinned and have an increasing amount of guilt because I couldn’t hold up my end of the bargain.  Perkins talks about how these plans fail us in that we’re not leaning on God; we’re trying to fight these battles on our own.  We also fail when we fall into a deep feeling of guilt for turning back to sin.  In my own experiences, this has led to 2 paths, one where I just try not to care about the sin anymore, or where I try not to care about the guilt.  Neither one is any good.  I like what Perkins has to say when he says, “…giving up the fight in your own strength is the first step to victory.”  This seems pretty obvious, but seldom realized, or put into action.  Like anything, if we take it to God first, let Him lead the way, we’re going to find ourselves better equipped to handle the battles we’ll have with sin along the way.  This includes turning to God when we do sin.  This, in turn means that we’re turning away from sin.  I remember my mom telling me to “lean on God” when I was tempted to do something that wasn’t honoring to God.  She said that when she feels temptation in her life, she “leans” on God by saying, “I can’t do this on my own here, God.  I need you to take this one for me.”  I don’t know if this works every time for her, or not.  I know that it hasn’t worked every time for me.  I do know, however, that it has worked a lot more than when I tried to muscle my own sin.  As tough as I am (and I am pretty tough…) that Satan guy might be a little tougher.  Fortunately for me, as tough as Satan is, that God guy is way tougher.  As long as I put God on my side, I like my chances…

I see other Christians, especially guys, who go down this path Perkins describes.  They start talking about what a miserable person they are, or how helpless they are.  But that’s where they stop.  They fail to realize that they can put Jesus on their side, and let Him whoop sin’s a$$.  It’s hard for me when I hear them crying out to the masses how hard their life is, or how miserable we all are, or how hopeless life seems.  I can’t help but think, “Yeah. Your life does sound pretty miserable.”  I need to work on my attitude toward these people.  My initial desire is to just avoid them.  I do, however, pray that they will see the hope that Jesus brought for all of us.  Perkins says in chapter 9, “Grab the grace of God.”  I love that.  I just want to shake ‘em and tell them to grab hold of that grace as though your life depends on you never letting go… er wait, it does.  Doesn’t it?

I would love to hear from you... please share your thoughts, struggles, victories, whatever!  Thanks!