How to Overcome Sin {And Live a Victorious Life}
This post is written by contributing writer, Alina Joy from Good Old Days Farm.
Imagine it’s the day of the big game. The fans are in the stands cheering wildly. The cheerleaders are on the field with their pom poms and big smiles on their faces. The opposing team is at the other side of the field looking tough. The air smells like hotdogs and popcorn and the excitement in the stadium is palpable. The home team is huddled together getting a pep talk from the team captain:
“Ok, guys, Listen up! The other team is way better than us. They’re bigger and stronger than us. They’re huge! They’re mean! They’re way more powerful than us, and they’re on a winning streak! There’s absolutely no way we are going to win this game, but I want you to go out on that field and give it your best shot anyway. Go out there and give it your all. We’re going to lose because there’s no possible way for us to win this game, but that’s ok. Just try not to get killed out there.”
Does the team stand a chance of winning after a pep talk like that?
We would never accept this kind of “encouragement” on the football field and yet we accept it all the time in our daily walk with Christ. Do any of these lines sound familiar:
- I can’t overcome that. I’ve tried and I just can’t.
- Don’t expect me to be perfect.
- I’m just human.
- It’s human nature.
- I know it’s bad, but…
We are on a mission to win that is far more serious than a football game. We are engaged in a battle for our souls! Satan wants us to hold onto sin, but Christ says,
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)
God would not tell us to do something that isn’t possible. He tells us to be perfect, so apparently it is possible to be perfect. Now I may not be a theologian, but this much I know: If God commands it, it’s possible! But it’s not possible to be perfect if we hold onto sin, cherish it, and use excuses like “I’m only human” to justify not giving up the sin we love so much…the sin we apparently love more than we love God.
Ouch.
Friends, don’t buy into the lie that you can’t give up a particular sin. There is not a sin out there that has not been overcome by somebody, somewhere. And if someone else can overcome the sin you are struggling with, you can too! God wants you to overcome. He commands you to overcome, and He equips you to overcome through His Holy Spirit and His Word found in the Bible. You may think that you’re “just human” but you’re not. Look at this:
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” 2 Peter 1:4
We don’t have to settle for being “just human”! We have the opportunity to be a “partaker of the divine nature.” The New Living Translation phrases it a bit differently. It says, “These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption” (emphasis added). How do we get to share in God’s divine nature? Simply by reading and claiming His promises. (Click here for an exhaustive list of Bible Promises, organized by topic.)
I challenge you! Can you think of a single sin that cannot be overcome? What about murder? There’s a sin with permanent repercussions if ever there was one! Yet, Moses committed murder and even after committing murder God called Moses to lead His people and communed with Moses so closely that Moses’ face glowed. Moses had been with God, but he could not have been with God if there was still sin in his life. God and sin cannot exist together (See Psalm 5:4).
Have you ever met somebody like Moses? Somebody who almost glowed from knowing God? Occasionally I have met someone who, when I walk away from them, I think to myself, “That person knows God.” What does it mean to know God? Well, when the Bible says that someone “knew” someone else it generally refers to a sexual relationship. It means being intimately acquainted with every private detail of another person’s being.
Do you know God deeply like that? I guarantee that we never will know God deeply and intimately if we insist on holding onto and cherishing the sin that He hates.
You see, it’s all linked. Yes, we have all sinned, but it is through reading, believing and claiming God’s promises that we share in God’s divine nature and are given power to overcome sin. As we faithfully read God’s Word we develop a relationship and come to the point of knowing God in a deep, intimate way. This is not just nodding at God in the morning and reading your obligatory chapter-a-day-to-keep-the-devil-away. This is about coming to know God in such a deep way that we are changed by being in His presence.
Friends, don’t let Satan’s lies shortchange you from the victorious life you could be living!
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2
This post is linked to Time Warp Wife, On Your Heart, Teach Me Tuesdays, Women Living Well, Works for Me, Walk with Him, Fellowship Fridays, Faith Filled Fridays.