How Can A Believer Overcome Repeatedly Falling Into Sin?
Q: I know it’s wrong, yet sometimes I still fall into a sin. How can I overcome this?
A: This advice does not fit for every person in every situation, but it has, at times, fit in my life and in the lives of some people I know. I pray that the Spirit would give you wisdom to know whether this is for you or not.
Focus on Jesus Christ more than on your sin. There have been times when I’ve been much more obsessed with a battle over sin than I am consumed with Jesus. Again, this is not valid advice in every situation, but it might be for you. You might find that you are putting too much interior focus on your sin, thinking, “How am I doing? What am I doing? Am I close to this sin? Am I being tempted by this? And how am I going to respond?” When that’s the case, you’re in a battle of a constant focus on self as Paul wrote about in Romans 7. Read that chapter and see how many times Paul refers to himself with the words, “I,” “me,” “my.” It’s exaggerated in there to show how intensely Paul was focusing on himself. Romans 7 shows us that Paul only found victory when he looked outside of himself to Jesus Christ.
That’s what I’m going to recommend to you. At certain times, instead of just gritting my teeth and focusing so much on how I’m doing, it can be a wonderful relief to forget about myself and put my focus on Jesus Christ. I pray that God will give you wisdom with that. And I pray that for everybody who hears this. For some, that might not be the best advice, but there may be others for whom it is exactly what they need to hear.