God wants us to walk in obedience, not victory. Obedience is oriented toward God. Victory is oriented toward yourself. Until we face this attitude and deal with it, we will not walk consistently in holiness. Victory is a byproduct of obedience. Concentrate on obedience.
1. Look at sin as an offense to a holy God instead of as a personal defeat only.
2. Take personal responsibility for your sin realizing that as you do you must depend on the grace of God.
3. Decide to obey God in all areas of life however insignificant the issue may be.
Hate is a strong word. We tell our kids not say they hate something. God hates sin. We need to cultivate in our own hearts the hatred of sin God has.
You cannot say to a slave, live as a free man, but you can say that to someone delivered from slavery.
Now that we are dead to sin we can stand up to it and say no to it. Before we had no choice, now we do.
Through Christ God has delivered us from sin, but the responsibility to resist saying is ours.
It is hypocritical to pray for victory over our sins, yet be careless in our intake of the word of God.
Naive Christians think they can find out what God wants us to do in the Bible, and then go do it.
We have to learn that we are dependent on the enabling power of the Holy Spirit to attain any degree of holiness. Then as we look to him we will see him working in us, revealing our sin, creating a desire for holiness, and giving us the strength to respond to him in obedience.
Instead of using the terms victory and defeat we should use the terms obedience and disobedience when referring to sin and our walk toward holiness.
Saying you were defeated slips the responsibility out from under you, saying you were disobedient puts the responsibility on you.
God's word must be so strongly fixed in our minds that it becomes the dominant influence in our own thoughts, our attitudes, and our actions. One of the most effective ways to influence our minds is through memorizing scripture.
As you meditate on the word ask yourself these three questions:
1. What does this passage teach concerning God's will for a holy life?
2. How does my life measure up to that scripture? Specifically where and how do I fall short? Be specific, don't generalize.
3. What definite steps of action do I need to take to obey?
- be disciplined toward holiness by taking action. Let's say you're reading about love and see that it's not envious. You look at your own life and recognize you are envious of a co-worker who gets all the breaks. You repent of that and start praying for that co-worker and memorize a scripture on love to think about when you see them at work and even find ways to help them. You do this until you're no longer envious of that co-worker. This takes discipline.
- Training in holiness is a lifelong process so a necessary ingredient is perseverance.
- Training is characterized by failure, but if we persevere we see progress
- When we try and put to death certain sins we see failure and then ask "what's the use? I could never put to death that sin." That is exactly what Satan wants us to believe. It is at this point we must persevere.
- Holiness doesn't come with instant success, habits aren't broken overnight, we need follow through and that requires perseverance
- the person disciplining himself toward holiness falls many times, but he doesn't quit
- as we progress in holiness we come to hate sin and to delight in God's law
- physical softness leads to spiritual softness
- when you can't say no to your desires for food you have trouble saying no to other sins
- when the body is pampered and indulged the instincts and passions of the body tend to get the upper hand and dominate our thoughts and actions
- we tend to do not what we should do but what we want to do as we follow the cravings of our sinful nature
- there is no place for laziness and indulgence of the body in a disciplined pursuit of holiness
- we have to learn to say no to the body instead of continually giving in to its momentary desires
- we tend to act according to our feelings, the trouble is we seldom feel like doing what we should do
- we don't feel like getting out of bed to have our morning time with God, or doing bible study, or praying or anything else we should do
- that's why we have to take control of our bodies and make them our servants instead of our masters
- reduce our exposure to temptation
- but when he understands Christ has delivered him from the reign of sin sees he is united to Christ who has all power and authority he sees it's possible to walk in obedience and begins to have hope
- hope in Christ brings him joy
- this joy brings strength and he overcomes sins that so easy entangled him before
- he learns the joy of a holy walk is infinitely more satisfying than the fleeting pleasures of sin
- we must choose to forsake sin
1. Look at sin as an offense to a holy God instead of as a personal defeat only.
2. Take personal responsibility for your sin realizing that as you do you must depend on the grace of God.
3. Decide to obey God in all areas of life however insignificant the issue may be.
Hate is a strong word. We tell our kids not say they hate something. God hates sin. We need to cultivate in our own hearts the hatred of sin God has.
Chapter 5
Paul exhorted us to be on our guard so we would not let send reign in our bodies. Before our salvation and death to the reign of sin, Paul's exhortation would have been futile.You cannot say to a slave, live as a free man, but you can say that to someone delivered from slavery.
Now that we are dead to sin we can stand up to it and say no to it. Before we had no choice, now we do.
Through Christ God has delivered us from sin, but the responsibility to resist saying is ours.
Chapter 7
It is hypocritical to pray for victory over our sins, yet be careless in our intake of the word of God.
Naive Christians think they can find out what God wants us to do in the Bible, and then go do it.
We have to learn that we are dependent on the enabling power of the Holy Spirit to attain any degree of holiness. Then as we look to him we will see him working in us, revealing our sin, creating a desire for holiness, and giving us the strength to respond to him in obedience.
Chapter 8
Instead of using the terms victory and defeat we should use the terms obedience and disobedience when referring to sin and our walk toward holiness.
Saying you were defeated slips the responsibility out from under you, saying you were disobedient puts the responsibility on you.
God's word must be so strongly fixed in our minds that it becomes the dominant influence in our own thoughts, our attitudes, and our actions. One of the most effective ways to influence our minds is through memorizing scripture.
Chapter 10
As you meditate on the word ask yourself these three questions:
1. What does this passage teach concerning God's will for a holy life?
2. How does my life measure up to that scripture? Specifically where and how do I fall short? Be specific, don't generalize.
3. What definite steps of action do I need to take to obey?
- be disciplined toward holiness by taking action. Let's say you're reading about love and see that it's not envious. You look at your own life and recognize you are envious of a co-worker who gets all the breaks. You repent of that and start praying for that co-worker and memorize a scripture on love to think about when you see them at work and even find ways to help them. You do this until you're no longer envious of that co-worker. This takes discipline.
- Training in holiness is a lifelong process so a necessary ingredient is perseverance.
- Training is characterized by failure, but if we persevere we see progress
- When we try and put to death certain sins we see failure and then ask "what's the use? I could never put to death that sin." That is exactly what Satan wants us to believe. It is at this point we must persevere.
- Holiness doesn't come with instant success, habits aren't broken overnight, we need follow through and that requires perseverance
- the person disciplining himself toward holiness falls many times, but he doesn't quit
- as we progress in holiness we come to hate sin and to delight in God's law
Chapter 11
- physical softness leads to spiritual softness
- when you can't say no to your desires for food you have trouble saying no to other sins
- when the body is pampered and indulged the instincts and passions of the body tend to get the upper hand and dominate our thoughts and actions
- we tend to do not what we should do but what we want to do as we follow the cravings of our sinful nature
- there is no place for laziness and indulgence of the body in a disciplined pursuit of holiness
- we have to learn to say no to the body instead of continually giving in to its momentary desires
- we tend to act according to our feelings, the trouble is we seldom feel like doing what we should do
- we don't feel like getting out of bed to have our morning time with God, or doing bible study, or praying or anything else we should do
- that's why we have to take control of our bodies and make them our servants instead of our masters
- reduce our exposure to temptation
Chapter 12
- the cure for the sin of envy and jealousy is to find our contentment in GodChapter 15
- faith enables us to obey when obedience is costly or seems unreasonable to the natural mindChapter 16
- One helpful reinforcement to living according to our convictions is to identify ourselves with Christ openly wherever we find ourselves in the world. This must be done in a gracious yet clear cut manner.Chapter 17
- the Christian living in disobedience lives without joy and hope- but when he understands Christ has delivered him from the reign of sin sees he is united to Christ who has all power and authority he sees it's possible to walk in obedience and begins to have hope
- hope in Christ brings him joy
- this joy brings strength and he overcomes sins that so easy entangled him before
- he learns the joy of a holy walk is infinitely more satisfying than the fleeting pleasures of sin
- we must choose to forsake sin
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