The Subtle Strategy of Sin

In my last post, “How can I stop sinning when it feels so good?“, I spoke of how sin is more then just our disobedient acts against God. It’s a force that relentlessly wages war against our soul, always seeking to reign in our lives. However before we can look to our battle plan against sin, we first need to know how our enemy attacks us so we can better defend ourselves.

Sin relies on deception

The main way sin attacks us is through deception. It lies; telling us that giving into it will grant us pleasure and satisfaction. That is actually not entirely untrue. It does feel good! BUT only for a short moment. What sin doesn’t tell you are the painful and shocking consequences – the guilt, the shame, the heartache, the ‘collateral damage’ in it’s destructive path. Don’t be deceived, giving into sin WILL impact others in our lives even if we think it often doesn’t. It’s corruptive and car-wrecking nature will attack at the heart of those around you no matter how you try to justify it. It will also impact our relationship with God and leave us crippled in despair and anguish.

Sin deceives us largely by corrupting our desires which in turn influence the members of our bodies to act upon them to disobey God. God has created us an emotional beings. Desires and emotions are a gift to us to be used to enjoy God and warn us against pending danger. Desires in themselves are not bad or good, however what defines them is how we respond or use them with the members of our body, ie our mind, eyes, tongue, ears, hands, feet, sexual organs etc. Will we use the members of our body as instruments of righteousness or unrighteousness? Will we use our desires to enjoy what God has given us, or to rebel against Him. The desire to talk or communicate is good when used to build up and connect with people, but when used to gossip, cut down and emotionally scare people, it’s is extremely destructive. Sexual desires are not bad when used as God intended for marital intimacy; not for feasting our eyes on pornographic material and filling our minds with adulterous and immoral fantasies, let alone directly acting on them.

Here lies the power of sin. It corrupts our desires and turns them into allies for Satan; enemies that deceive us into thinking that sin is good for us because it may make us ‘feel’ better. We feel down, so let’s sin to make us feel better. It’s a LIE! After the initial ‘fix’, it just makes us feel more depressed, guilty and ashamed. God has created us to be holy or set apart to worship and enjoy Him, not feed these self-obsessed, wicked desires. It’s tough. It’s a battle every day. The hard part is that once we allow these desires to give birth and reign within us, it makes it a lot harder to expel them out of our heart. If fact it becomes impossible without the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit within, because they ‘feel’ so good.

So what’s the answer?

So how do we do triumph over sin in our lives? How do we choose to follow God when giving into sin feels so good?! Partly it is about understanding our enemy which is what we have looked at the last couple of blog posts. However we need a battle plan to combat the enemy. We need a Saviour! May I suggest that our fight against sin doesn’t start with the strength of our will or our ability to choose what is right, but with what God has done!

My next two blogs will be looking at how we stand up against sin and enjoy living victoriously for God.