How To: Defeat Sin in Your Life

As young ladies who desire to pursue Jesus with our whole hearts, we know our sin is a stumbling block and an entanglement to our race.

If you’re like me, you often fall into the same sin. It seems to claw your strength away—you simply cannot resist its pull. It seems too strong for you.

This sin is only conquered by God’s sanctifying grace in our lives.

So, what we need to do is to take God’s Word—which holds all the answers—and fight the sin in our lives, asking God to strengthen us.

I was at a counseling workshop several weeks ago and the speaker said something that I will never forget:

“The only way to defeat sin is to replace it with something good.”

We have this perspective that we must flee from sin—which is true. But we seem to stop there. When we run away from sin, but have no clear direction, we find ourselves running back to our sin.

So how do we defeat sin?

We fight bad with good.

We replace evil thoughts with good thoughts.

We run away from evil, but toward good.

“Now, flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”

2 Timothy 2: 22

(emphasis added)

“For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.”

1 Timothy 6:10-11

(emphasis added)

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

Philippians 4:8

If all you do is push bad thoughts or emotions out, the evil will just return. The key is to not just run away from sin, but toward God.

Practical Application:

-Whenever you find yourself wanting to sin—with your actions, your emotions, in your thoughts, etc—stop immediately. Pray for God’s strength. Then turn your mind and your heart to Jesus. Here are some ways to do that:

         -Pray for other people

         -Pray for yourself

         -Recite Scripture

         -Read your Bible

         -Talk to a strong Christian friend

         -Remember God’s promises to you, such as, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” –2 Timothy 2: 13

How do you defeat temptation in your life? Share in the comments!