If you are serious about growing in Christ, you need to grow more in love with Jesus and less in love with sin. Start by taking responsibility for your sin and asking for God’s help in resisting temptation.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and I am in a battle against sin.
My own sin. If you want to pray for me – or if you do pray for me, pray that I will resist temptation: the temptation to complain, to snap at people with impatience, the temptation to not share all the facts when I should. Look, I’m in a battle against sin, and so pray that I keep partnering with the Holy Spirit in uprooting wickedness – ooh, there’s a word that’ll nail you! Pray that I’ll confront sin in my life: facing it, naming it, confessing it, repenting from it, and then leaving it behind and instead finding pleasure in Jesus that is far more enticing, far more compelling, far more satisfying than my old sin habit. Pray that I will love Jesus more than I love sin. And I would pray the same for you in your battle. Oh, may you keep turning to Jesus because you find in him more pleasure and you find him fulfilling than your wicked habits. Forgive me if I sound too direct, but…
If we are serious about growing in Christ, we need to grow more in love with Jesus and less in love with our sin. But, when it comes to facing and pinpointing sin in our life, these days I’m hearing people not take responsibility for it. They shift the blame and speak of sin this way. They’ll say, “You know, I’ve just got this ‘spirit of procrastination.’” Or so and so has a “spirit of abuse.” Others are said to have had the “spirit of lust,” or a “sensual spirit.” Others have been told that they have a “spirit of divorce.” Now, I hear those words all the time, but I’m sorry, I don’t hear them in the Bible. The Bible uses the word “spirit” to refer to a demon, such as an “unclean spirit” or an “evil spirit.” But many people launch from these verses into naming a demon after their sin of, I don’t know, their tendency to lie, or their sensuality, or their lust. Like, to say that a believer has a “spirit of lust” is to say that his real problem is some demon, not his own habit. But his real problem is with temptation, isn’t it, to give in to his own appetites?
People will even think or say that the devil made them do it, when the truth is, they’ve been enticed by their own desires and led astray. Oh, sure, demons can place the bait in front of us but, I tell you, those demons don’t have to work very hard. James 1 says that when we are tempted, we are actually being enticed by our own desires – our flesh. Now, okay, when that happens; when you are enticed, in that moment, you have not sinned yet. You are tempted, but you still have a choice. Yet, if you fail to ask for God’s help, for his grace, then those desires take over and they give immediate birth to sin. So in all probability, it was not the devil who made you do anything. It was your own wicked desires. And, friend, this is the arena of our spiritual warfare. So, we need to be alert. Not obsessed with demonic activity, but definitely alert. And we need to be prayerful. Jesus taught us to pray every day, “deliver us from evil.” We put on the armor. And our primary position against the enemy is always defensive, not offensive. According to Ephesians 6, we are to stand and withstand. There’s no hint that we should go out there looking for trouble – you know – go looking for the devil. If we faithfully live and speak out for Christ, then you’d better bet the devil will come looking for you. Christ is the victor and Satan is only living on borrowed time. As such, Jesus must always be in the foreground of our thinking and our living; never the devil. And so, yes, let’s be alert, be prayerful, be equipped. And thank you for praying for me in my battle against sin, and if you need prayer in your battle, let us know at joniradio.org.
© Joni and Friends