Overcoming Sin

Scripture Reading: 1 John 1:5-10

Can we overcome sin? We are told to walk in the light, to overcome darkness. It’s not easy but God provides a way. Outlined in scriptures we have a way to resist sin. We will never be perfectly victorious over sin but that should still be our goal. How can we can progressively overcome sin and become more and more like Christ? God gives us four resources to accomplish His plan.

1. The Holy Spirit

God has given us the Holy Spirit so we can be victorious in Christian living.

Read Galatians 5:16-25, we are called to walk in the Spirit. All believers have the Spirit, but we are being told to walk in the Spirit yielding to His control. To follow His prompting always, not the flesh.

Do not quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19 “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire;”).

We should seek to be filled with it (Ephesians 5:18-21 “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ”)
How do we fill ourselves with the Holy Spirit? There is evidence in Ephesians 5:18-21 (above) and Colossians 3:16 (“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”)

God chooses to fill those who are filling themselves with the Word of God.

2. The Word Of God

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
It teaches us how to live and what to believe. It reveals to us when we have chosen wrong paths, it helps us get back on the right path and it helps us to stay on that path. It is living and powerful, able to penetrate to our hearts to root out and overcome the deepest sins of heart and attitude.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Often treated to lightly. Not memorized, not applied, not meditated on. When it comes to the Bible, we are often either anorexic or bulimic. We either take in just enough to keep us alive spiritually by eating from the Word (but never ingesting enough to be healthy, thriving Christians), or we come to feed often but never meditate on it long enough to get spiritual nutrition from it.

The Bible is the tool the Spirit uses in our lives (Ephesians 6:17), an essential and major part of the armor that God gives us to fight our spiritual battles (Ephesians 6:12-18).


3. Prayer Prayer is our third resource in our war against sin … Another area we tend to be lazy in.

How important is prayer to overcoming sin in our lives? We have Christ's words to Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before Peter's denial. As Jesus prays, Peter is sleeping. Jesus wakes him and says, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Matthew 26:41). We, like Peter, want to do what is right but are not finding the strength.

We need to follow God, keep seeking, keep knocking, keep asking—and He will give us the strength that we need ... (Matthew 7:7) ““Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Prayer is not a magic formula. Prayer is simply acknowledging our own limitations, acknowledging God's awesome power, and turning to Him for strength to do what He wants us to do. Not what we want to do. (1 John 5:14-15) “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

4. The Church Fellowship with other believers.

When Jesus sent His disciples out, He sent them out two-by-two (Matthew 10:1) “He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.”
The missionaries in Acts did not go out one at a time, but in groups of two or more.

Jesus commands us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together but to use that time for encouraging one another in love and good works (Hebrews 10:24) “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”

He tells us to confess our faults to one another (James 5:16) “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective”

In the Old Testament, we are told that as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another (Proverbs 27:17) “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another”
There is strength in numbers (Ecclesiastes 4:11-12) “Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

Temptation is common to all (1 Corinthians 10:13) “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
An accountability partner can help our need to overcome sin. Sometimes victory comes quickly other times, slowly. God has promised that as we make use of His resources, He will progressively bring about change in our lives. We can rest easy in our efforts to overcome sin. We know that God is faithful to His promises.