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CHAPTER 4
VICTORY OVER BESETTING SINS
We have learned that we are unique, beautiful and special daughters of the Lord; each of us
having a purpose to fulfill as He arranges us into His bouquet. We also have learned that the
Fall of Man has tried to interrupt God’s plan for us, but that God has sent His Holy Spirit to
dwell in us, so that we may become children of the Most High. Children of God endowed
with His power, love and righteousness living inside of us. We have also learned how
important our minds are and how we must have our minds renewed. But, it seems like there
are just some particular sins that each one of us has to battle over and over again. That
same sin keeps cropping up and defeating us. We wonder sometimes if we are even
saved. We feel so ashamed before God because we keep repeating the same sin over and
over, and we seem to be so powerless to conquer it. Read Romans chapter 7 and you will
see that Paul had the same struggle. “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am
unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do
not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is
good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing
good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I
cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to
do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but
it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is
right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at
work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a
prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will
rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So
then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law
of sin" (Rom 7: 14-25).
Paul's struggle is the same as ours today. It doesn’t change, because we have the old man
(the sin/carnal nature inherited from Adam and Eve) and the new nature (of Christ) living
inside of us both at the same time. There is a war and battle going on inside of us that will
continue until the day we are ushered into glory and are made perfect. But for now, what
can we do so that we can please our Father?
Well, we know that our chief purpose in life is to love God with all our hearts and to glorify
Him with our lives. In order to do this we must become more and more like Jesus. The Holy
Spirit must work in us, if we will let Him, to get rid of all that does not please Him. God is
very patient and merciful. Believe me—I know! But there are particular sins in our lives that
can keep us from entering into all that the Lord has planned for us. Plans that bring us
release and freedom, where nothing holds us back from growing in Christ and doing what we
were created for. The Bible calls these particular sins “besetting sins.” Hebrews 12:1
says, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset (entangles, ensnares)
us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” These sins trip us up time and
time again, and we keep falling into that same sin.
Then, God puts His finger on it! First He speaks to our hearts and conscious about it. If we
don’t conquer the sin, then He allows tests and circumstances to arise that will give us the
opportunity to either gain the victory over that besetting sin, or be defeated by it. We then
feel literally like dying. We have to go around the mountain again (like the Children of Israel)
because we did not pass the test. Now we have a choice: Run from God’s dealing or
submit and let it be ripped out from our lives by the bulldozer. Flesh hates to die. We fight
and kick and scream at every turn against God’s dealings with us, until we become
exhausted and frustrated. Crying, we finally give in.
But this isn’t victory. Victory comes when we recognize the temptation; realize we must
NOT give in this time, but instead run immediately, right in the midst of the temptation, crying
out “HELP ME GOD! Give me Your power to succeed!”
It must be in the midst (this is the key right here, to victory), and not after you’ve already
yielded to the sin. When you cry out in the midst, you are given power by the Holy Spirit, not
to yield to the temptation, and because you cried out to Him, victory then comes! It gets
easier each time you do this, and finally you find that you are tempted less and less by this
sin. When the temptation does comes, it doesn’t bother you like it use to. Our battles are
spiritual. We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers in high
places.
Battles are often won in the prayer closet! God can change our attitude about a
circumstance or a person, as we wait in the prayer closet for His grace to be given to us.
Then, all of a sudden, we see things in a different light. We begin to see things like He sees
them, and somehow He speaks to our hearts and changes our attitudes. We need to stay
there until God’s peace descends and we no longer feel the way we did when we entered
into prayer. Repent immediately, when you do sin or have bad thoughts, and ask for
forgiveness. Know this; IT IS NOT A SIN TO BE TEMPTED (even Jesus was tempted in
like manner as we are)! IT ONLY BECOMES A SIN IF WE GIVE IN TO IT!
Now what is your besetting sin that God is dealing with you about? Is there a particular sin
that seems to haunt you and you keep falling into over and over again? “If we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”
(I John 1:9). What a wonderful Scripture this is. This is one of my very favorite because I
have to call upon this Scripture so often. Repentance is necessary every time that we sin
and is a key to victory. One great man of God was asked, what is the key to your
relationship with the Lord and he answered “I repent a lot.” And so it is with us. Sometimes
we are delivered in the prayer closet, as we talked about above, but oftentimes the Lord
cleanses us of our sin through circumstances that He allows to come our way, in order for us
to overcome this particular sin.
Remember the KEY! Recognize when you are being tempted with this particular sin, and cry
out in the midst unto God for His HELP! The Holy Spirit then rises up within you and gives
you the power to resist this sin and gain the victory! You will pass the test and you will
please your Father! We are all being cleansed, changed and transformed into the image of
our dear Savior, Jesus Christ. It is a growing process. It is a progressive process rather
than an instantaneous event. It takes time to grow and be changed and become all that God
wants us to be. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the
Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord,
the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18). A-Men!
VICTORY OVER BESETTING SINS
We have learned that we are unique, beautiful and special daughters of the Lord; each of us
having a purpose to fulfill as He arranges us into His bouquet. We also have learned that the
Fall of Man has tried to interrupt God’s plan for us, but that God has sent His Holy Spirit to
dwell in us, so that we may become children of the Most High. Children of God endowed
with His power, love and righteousness living inside of us. We have also learned how
important our minds are and how we must have our minds renewed. But, it seems like there
are just some particular sins that each one of us has to battle over and over again. That
same sin keeps cropping up and defeating us. We wonder sometimes if we are even
saved. We feel so ashamed before God because we keep repeating the same sin over and
over, and we seem to be so powerless to conquer it. Read Romans chapter 7 and you will
see that Paul had the same struggle. “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am
unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do
not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is
good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing
good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I
cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to
do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but
it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is
right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at
work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a
prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will
rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So
then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law
of sin" (Rom 7: 14-25).
Paul's struggle is the same as ours today. It doesn’t change, because we have the old man
(the sin/carnal nature inherited from Adam and Eve) and the new nature (of Christ) living
inside of us both at the same time. There is a war and battle going on inside of us that will
continue until the day we are ushered into glory and are made perfect. But for now, what
can we do so that we can please our Father?
Well, we know that our chief purpose in life is to love God with all our hearts and to glorify
Him with our lives. In order to do this we must become more and more like Jesus. The Holy
Spirit must work in us, if we will let Him, to get rid of all that does not please Him. God is
very patient and merciful. Believe me—I know! But there are particular sins in our lives that
can keep us from entering into all that the Lord has planned for us. Plans that bring us
release and freedom, where nothing holds us back from growing in Christ and doing what we
were created for. The Bible calls these particular sins “besetting sins.” Hebrews 12:1
says, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset (entangles, ensnares)
us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” These sins trip us up time and
time again, and we keep falling into that same sin.
Then, God puts His finger on it! First He speaks to our hearts and conscious about it. If we
don’t conquer the sin, then He allows tests and circumstances to arise that will give us the
opportunity to either gain the victory over that besetting sin, or be defeated by it. We then
feel literally like dying. We have to go around the mountain again (like the Children of Israel)
because we did not pass the test. Now we have a choice: Run from God’s dealing or
submit and let it be ripped out from our lives by the bulldozer. Flesh hates to die. We fight
and kick and scream at every turn against God’s dealings with us, until we become
exhausted and frustrated. Crying, we finally give in.
But this isn’t victory. Victory comes when we recognize the temptation; realize we must
NOT give in this time, but instead run immediately, right in the midst of the temptation, crying
out “HELP ME GOD! Give me Your power to succeed!”
It must be in the midst (this is the key right here, to victory), and not after you’ve already
yielded to the sin. When you cry out in the midst, you are given power by the Holy Spirit, not
to yield to the temptation, and because you cried out to Him, victory then comes! It gets
easier each time you do this, and finally you find that you are tempted less and less by this
sin. When the temptation does comes, it doesn’t bother you like it use to. Our battles are
spiritual. We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers in high
places.
Battles are often won in the prayer closet! God can change our attitude about a
circumstance or a person, as we wait in the prayer closet for His grace to be given to us.
Then, all of a sudden, we see things in a different light. We begin to see things like He sees
them, and somehow He speaks to our hearts and changes our attitudes. We need to stay
there until God’s peace descends and we no longer feel the way we did when we entered
into prayer. Repent immediately, when you do sin or have bad thoughts, and ask for
forgiveness. Know this; IT IS NOT A SIN TO BE TEMPTED (even Jesus was tempted in
like manner as we are)! IT ONLY BECOMES A SIN IF WE GIVE IN TO IT!
Now what is your besetting sin that God is dealing with you about? Is there a particular sin
that seems to haunt you and you keep falling into over and over again? “If we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”
(I John 1:9). What a wonderful Scripture this is. This is one of my very favorite because I
have to call upon this Scripture so often. Repentance is necessary every time that we sin
and is a key to victory. One great man of God was asked, what is the key to your
relationship with the Lord and he answered “I repent a lot.” And so it is with us. Sometimes
we are delivered in the prayer closet, as we talked about above, but oftentimes the Lord
cleanses us of our sin through circumstances that He allows to come our way, in order for us
to overcome this particular sin.
Remember the KEY! Recognize when you are being tempted with this particular sin, and cry
out in the midst unto God for His HELP! The Holy Spirit then rises up within you and gives
you the power to resist this sin and gain the victory! You will pass the test and you will
please your Father! We are all being cleansed, changed and transformed into the image of
our dear Savior, Jesus Christ. It is a growing process. It is a progressive process rather
than an instantaneous event. It takes time to grow and be changed and become all that God
wants us to be. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the
Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord,
the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18). A-Men!
| Women for the Lord www.WomenfortheLord.com "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies." Proverbs 31:10 |
