Perhaps, you need to know first that we all struggle with sin. The Apostle John says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” These sins will vary depending on the season of your life and the maturity you are achieving in Christ. One sin conquered, however, allows you to begin dealing with the next sin. Satan is relentless with his temptations.
The first order of business is to get acquainted with how Satan operates and how one led to sin. James 1:14-15 lays down the process like this. “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” The frontier for gaining freedom is in the heart where desire is initiated. Desire has a short shelf life when ignored. So one has to feed it, massage it, linger on it, for it to give birth to sin. Once you identify the battleground, you can take some other steps.
One action is to shield yourself from the things that cause the desire. The biblical words are “flee from” (see I Corinthians 6:18; 10:14; I Timothy 6:11, etc.). Avoid the situations where harmful desires arise in your heart. I have a friend who took his clothes each week to a cleaners that was next to a topless bar. One time he left his clothes at the cleaners and had a momentary battle with himself about taking a peek inside the bar. He didn’t and the next week he started going to a cleaners located in a different place.
A very important next step is to allow yourself to be accountable to others. There are a few accountability groups that have already formed in our church for this purpose. These are excellent because no one can conquer temptation and sin alone. One of the lines from Satan himself is “leave me alone. I can do this all by myself!” Biblically, we are urged to “confess our sins to one another” (James 5:16). An accountability group is three or four men or women (never mixed sexes) who get together intentionally on a regular basis to ask a few questions regarding sin and righteousness in their lives. Over time, you get to the place where you trust one another with everything that is going on in your life. Also, each person prays for one another. Permission is given to contact any of the others when temptation arises in your heart even between meetings. More help can be given in this area by contacting our iCare Ministry. They can give you more assistance about organizing one yourself.
One principle I believe applies to the process of achieving victory is this: develop a new passion in your life that will compete with the one that is dragging you toward sin. When you occupy your mind and heart with some new activity that is pure and useful, something that calls for new skills and techniques, you will find there is less time for the thoughts that drag you into sin. In a way, this is what Peter is suggesting when he says, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord” (I Peter 3:15).
-David Corts
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