How to Resist Temptation?

[Taafe]

You know, I'm online every day and never bump into porn, or sexual images of any kind. But, then, I'm very careful not to roam around the web blindly, or frequent morally-sketchy sites.

Romans 13:14
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh regarding its lusts.

The problem with making yourself deny an evil attraction/impulse is that you're working from the same source that produced the attraction to stop it. This is like trying to use the poison that's killing you to stop your poisoning.

When we "force" ourselves to resist a temptation, by our human will-power refusing evil desire, we can seem to succeed in the short run. But the carnal mind that wants to yield to temptation can't be the thing that keeps us from that temptation. You can't set the fox to guard the henhouse without eventual catastrophe.

God's way of escape from any and all sin is spelled out in Romans 6. In the chapter, the apostle Paul issued two basic commands in regards to dealing with sin:

1.) By faith, count on - trust yourself entirely to - the truth of who you are in Jesus Christ.

2.) Submit yourself to God as a slave of righteousness.


You see, any and all sin of whatever kind always invites (tempts) us to do two things:

1.) Deny who we are in Christ. (I'm not dead to sin and alive unto God.)

2.) Stand in God's place in our lives. (I call the shots, not God.)


And so, Paul gave two basic commands to the believer who wants to properly counter the two basic invitations of sin:

Romans 6:11
11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:12-13
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.


If you are "in Christ," you are a "new creature" in him, "old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Only as you make a habit of standing, by faith, in this truth in the face of the temptation to act contrary to your identity in Christ will you ever begin to be conformed to it. We all, as children of God, must "walk by faith" (2 Corinthians 5:7) in who He says we are.

But there is little point in claiming the truth of who you are in Jesus if you refuse to walk before God throughout each day as the "living sacrifice" to Him that you must be. God will not fill a rebel with Himself, with His life and power, and without such filling, one cannot ever truly live in full liberty from the Source of all sin: The carnally-minded "old man" - the person we are apart from God.

So, be careful: In the end, regardless of short-term "successes" in resisting sin, you can only produce more of you. Only God can make you truly godly.

Galatians 5:16
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

Romans 8:13
13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Galatians 6:8
8 ...the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

2 Corinthians 3:18
18 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.

Philippians 2:13
13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

This is really good. Thank you.

Apologies as this is off topic but I'm stuck deep in sexual sin and feel as though I can't escape.

Practically, how do I do this? Read the Bible more and pray more etc.

How do I truly submit to God and walk in his light?

How do I resist the temptation of sin? The thoughts automatically appear in my mind and even when I pray and ask God to help me they get stronger and stronger until I give in.
I understand people might say “Don't give in” but this is what I've been trying to do for a long time.

I love Jesus and want to surrender and give my life to him, walk along his path and become a faithful servant but practically I don't know how to?


Sorry for all the questions I hope you understand what I'm trying to ask.

God bless

 

[Tenchi]

Apologies as this is off topic but I'm stuck deep in sexual sin and feel as though I can't escape.

Well, if you're one of God's children, He has already dealt with the source of any and all of your sin. Read Romans 6.

Practically, how do I do this? Read the Bible more and pray more etc.

No.

Bible study is super important, as is prayer, but the way you win free of sin is to sort out the core reason why you sin and understand what God has done about it.

Why do you want to be free of your sexual sin?

What does God say your reason for getting free of sexual sin should be?

How do I truly submit to God and walk in his light?

The Bible describes submitting to God in several ways:

- yielding to Him. (Romans 6:13)
- humbling yourself under Him. (1 Peter 5:6; James 4:10)
- presenting yourself to Him as a living sacrifice. (Romans 12:1)
- being led of God (the Holy Spirit). (Galatians 5:18; Romans 8:14)

The best concrete example from the Bible I can give you of what submitting to God looks like is the account of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane just before he was to be betrayed by Judas and crucified. Knowing what was about to happen to him, being fully human as well as fully God, Jesus recoiled from the terrible suffering he was about to endure. But he was also God incarnate who had come to do the will of the Father and be "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." And so, at one point in his praying, dreading the terrible pain he was about to endure, Jesus said to God the Father, "If possible, let the cup of this suffering pass from me. But if this isn't possible, not my will but yours be done." This is what it is to submit to God: Consciously, explicitly asking God to take control of you, giving up your will and way for His.

As Christians, we're in relationship with God. Not a super-powered human; not a bearded guy in the clouds, smiling down on us; not someone who's more or less like we are, but the Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. We're so much inferior to God that it isn't possible to explain how much. And so, if we're going to "walk with God" we have no choice but to do so as lesser to Greater, inferior to Superior, as children to Divine Parent, or sheep to Shepherd, or servant to Master, or lump of clay to Potter, or branch to Tree.

Whenever we aren't living before God submitted to His will and way, we are rebels before Him and, as such, God actually resists us (James 4:6-7; 1 Peter 5:5-6). When we aren't in a position of submission to God, we cannot properly resist the devil (James 4:7), who makes mincemeat of anyone living as a rebel before God. And so, submitting to God must happen all throughout every day, sometimes many times a day. It's a way of life, you see, not just a mechanism for overcoming whatever sin we've decided makes us uncomfortable.

The Great Battle of Christian living isn't about making ourselves do what is right; it isn't about forcing ourselves to be holy and righteous; it isn't about stuffing down wrong desire as best we can. No, the Great Battle is ALWAYS about submission. You see, the Holy Spirit only goes to work on us, changing our desires, and thinking, and behavior, when we are consciously, explicitly submitted to his control every day. When we are tempted to sin, at bottom, we are only always being tempted to follow our own way, not God's. And so, the right response to every temptation is submission to God.

Every time the impulse to sexual sin confronts you, then, your response should be - sometimes over, and over, and over, as God trains in you the habit of submission - to submit to God. As you do, the Holy Spirit goes to work on you, altering what you want, changing how you think about sin and God, and reforming your conduct. Over time, as you live consistently in submission to God, you are transformed, coming free, not just of sin, but of the Source of all your sin, your "old Self."

One last thing: Don't make a statement of submission to God a mere word-ritual, like some kind of magic spell. God looks upon your heart, not just your words, and responds to what is there. If you get in the practice of just mindlessly saying, "God, I submit myself to you," it will have no spiritual benefit. When you yield yourself to God, mean it.

 

[Tenchi]

How do I resist the temptation of sin? The thoughts automatically appear in my mind and even when I pray and ask God to help me they get stronger and stronger until I give in.
I understand people might say “Don't give in” but this is what I've been trying to do for a long time.

No, this is lousy advice and it isn't biblical.

The apostle Paul explained the two basic things you must do when being tempted:

1.) Romans 6:11
11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

2.) Romans 6:12-13
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

When you were born-again, a whole bunch of things became true of you spiritually for the first time. You were made a "new creature in Christ," and part of what that means is that you were united with Jesus in his death on the cross. I can't explain how because the Bible doesn't say how, but it does say that every child of God was united with Christ in his death (and burial and resurrection).

Romans 6:6-7
6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

Galatians 2:20
20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Galatians 5:24
24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Because this happened to you, the power source of all your sin, your "old Self", was "put to death" on the cross of Christ, separating your "old Self" from you so that it no longer has the power to compel you to sin. Now, as a born-again child of God, as a "new creature in Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:17) you are able always to refuse sin and to stand, instead, in the truth of your new identity in Jesus Christ. This is what the apostle Paul meant in the first verse I offered you above from Romans 6.

Here's the confusing and challenging part of all this: Most Christians don't live as people who are "dead to sin" and they sure don't feel like people who are "dead to sin." And because they are used to establishing what is true and real on the basis of their experience and feelings, they can't get their head around what Paul is saying in Romans 6. If they're really "dead to sin," why doesn't it feel like it and why don't they live like it? How can sin be filling their life while they are "dead to sin"? This doesn't make sense, right?

Well, there's a great story in the Old Testament that addresses this situation (Numbers 13-14). It's about when the Jews arrived from their Exodus from Egypt at the borders of the Promised Land. God had told them that the land was theirs for the taking and that they should just enter it and make it theirs. Instead, the Israelites sent in spies to check things out, who returned with reports of great cities, and giants, and formidable nations of people. In fright, the Israelites backed away from God's promise to them of the land of Canaan. They wouldn't go in. Though God had told them the land was theirs, they went with what they felt and saw and refused to enter into the land He had given to them.

This is what Christians do today with God's declarations to them in His word, the Bible. He says, "You're dead to sin. It should have dominion over you no more!" And they reply, "We don't feel like we are and we don't see that we are, so you must be wrong!" What they should be doing instead is standing by faith on what God has said, no matter what they feel or experience, which is what Paul commands the believers at Rome to do in verse 11 of chapter 6 of his letter to them.

We "walk by FAITH, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7). And only when we start to do so and put our full weight, not on what we feel or experience, but on what God has said, will we begin to actually experience God's truth in our lives. So, the next time sexual sin tempts you, tell yourself the truth about who you are in Jesus Christ. No matter what you feel, or experience, the truth, God's truth, is that you ARE dead to sin and never again have to come under its power. What remains is for you to begin to count it as so, to stand unmoved on the truth of your freedom from Self and Sin.

 

[Tenchi]

All the "counting it so" won't help you if it isn't done from a life of submission to God. This is the second command Paul gives in Romans 6:12-13. In concert with standing by faith on the truth of who you are in Christ, you must also remain submitted to God, presenting yourself to Him all throughout each day as a "living sacrifice" to Him, asking Him to control your desires, thoughts and actions. When you make a habit of doing both things - standing by faith in God's truth and submitting yourself to His control - not just when you're tempted but as a way of life, the Holy Spirit goes to work on you, transforming you and bringing you into a concrete experience of what God has said is yours as His child.

One last thing: If you want to be free of sin, don't make any room for it in your life.

Romans 13:13-14
13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

The alcoholic must stay away from the bar; the gambler must forsake the casino; the drug addict must avoid the drug dealer, and so on. If you're tempted sexually, then, get rid of the avenues through which that sin confronts you. Get rid of your cell phone; lock down your p.c., or put it where everyone can see what you're looking at; toss the dirty movies that provoke you sexually; don't hang out at the beach. And so on.

If you've got other questions, feel free to ask them. Hope this stuff is a help to you. It has been an enormous help to me to understand and live in the things I've just shared with you.