Hi friends!
Do you have a sin in your life that you just cannot seem to get control of? If this question strikes a cord with you, then check out the below four tips to help you overcome that sin.
Before we get to the four tips, I want to let you know that if you are struggling with a sin in your life, know that the Holy Spirit is convicting you today to stop this sin. This sin is preventing you from being an effective witness for the Gospel; however, it does not mean that God has turned His face away. If you are His child, He will never leave you or forsake you. However, in order to be effective for God and in order to hopefully one day hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” (Matthew 25:21) we need to cast all sin from our life. To do so, we must actively seek a solution instead of focusing all of our attention on the problem. So without further ado, here are four tips to help you overcome your habitual sins.
Confess your sin to God. This truly is a very basic principle of Christianity but it is of utmost importance. 1 John 1:9 says, “9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (NIV). Remember, God is completely holy and can be around no sin. That being the case, every time we sin, we distance ourselves in our relationship with God. God calls us to be holy because He is holy (Leviticus 11:44) and when we ask for forgiveness we are redeemed and are reconnected with God. Connection with God is powerful and will strengthen our walk of faith. This in turn will grow God’s kingdom here on earth.
Hold each other accountable. James 5:16 says, “16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (NIV). That being the case, we should strive to find a strong Christian mentor, who we can confess our sins to, who will hold us accountable, and who will pray for us. Prayer is the most powerful tool in the Christian tool kit, because we are praying to the Creator of the universe who cares deeply for us. God wants us to be holy, and He will give you the strength to overcome sin through the working of the Holy Spirit. We can also go one step further and ask our mentor to not only pray for us, but to hold us accountable. As an example, one of the best pieces of advice that I can tell someone who has an addiction to their phone, or who uses the internet to view things that they should not be viewing, is to give another person the ability to see everything that you access on your mobile device. There are a lot of apps out there that will allow you to do this and it can help tremendously, because it is easy to sin in our isolation, but hard to sin in a crowd. You see, Satan wants you to feel like you are alone when you are sinning. This way, you feel like you can get away with it and your guilt is lessened, because “no one” knows that you have sinned. However, if someone has control over seeing what you do, you are less likely to commit those sins. A great example of this is in regards to internet clickbait. There is clickbait all over the internet and most of it is not safe for work, but it is very easy to click on if no one knows you are looking at it. However, the company that I work for can see everything that I do during the day and I cannot afford to lose my job over something that I decided to click on in the spur of the moment. Knowing that someone else can see everything that I look at on my phone really helps me not click on things that I really should not be looking at. You do not have to have a company like mine that can see whatever I look at, because you can use a friend, family member, or mentor. If you give someone visibility over what you do on your phone, it will go a long way to help you avoid looking at things that you should not have clicked on in the first place.
Spend time in the Word of God and memorize Scripture. Psalm 119:11 says,” 11 I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You” (NIV). When Satan tempts us, the best thing we can do is to quote the Scripture back to him. We know this is effective, because it is exactly how Jesus rebuked Satan when He was tempted in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). If Scripture is memorized in your heart, it is going to be something that pops in your head when you are struggling with temptation and it is going to help you to choose not to act on the desires of your flesh.
When you are tempted; pray! As stated previously, prayer is the most powerful tool that you have. When you are struggling with a sin, start praying as soon as you are struck with that temptation. Your prayer is going to refocus your mindset from the sin that you want to commit to God’s desires. Remember James 4: 7-8 says, “7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (NIV). When you are praying, you should not be sinning because God is going to be near to you. When you pray when you are tempted, ask to be released from your temptation and ask God to help you find a way to use that time to glorify His name and bring glory to His kingdom, so that your mind will shift its focus from sin to salvation.
Hopefully these four tips help and encourage you in your walk of faith. Last, but certainly not least, I want to hear from you! What do you do and what strategies do you use that have been effective in helping you to overcome sin? I would love to hear from you, because this is something that we all struggle with, myself included, so leave a comment below!
Please go be the light to this world, the salt to the earth, and encourage someone else today, because the world desperately needs it!
In love,
-DJ
DJ Allan is the founder of the HomeGrown Ministries YouTube channel, where he strives to provide wisdom and encouragement to strengthen your walk of faith.