Destroying Sin

Tomorrow (3/5/2014) I plan to give up social media (well mostly Facebook) in order to focus on a problem in my life. I want to stand on Easter Sunday finally free of the guilt and shame I live with. I want to stand there knowing that finally, at least in this area, the area of my mind I am free.

I want to be rid of guilt and shame. 

There is always sin to destroy. I don’t know about you but I hate the sin I see in my heart. I want it gone. Destroyed. I never want to come to the place where I tolerate sin in my heart. Sadly though that is just what I do much of the time.

Destroying sin is hard work and at times I grow weary and want to give up. If I am really honest, most the time I do give up. There is no victory. I try and try to rid my heart of a particular sin only to fail. I fail because I want instant victory. I want instant godliness. But that is not God’s way.

1 Timothy 4:7 says that we “must discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness” Discipline is not easy. Discipline is hard work, and it takes time. It takes patience.

But I am reminded that destroying sin, learning to live a life of godliness is something I do not do alone. As a believer in Christ the well of His power never runs dry. Never. The desire in me that says, “I want change, I want victory” comes from the Spirit that lives in me.

My new life in Christ is oriented toward godliness; which is why at times I ache for it. I long for it. The problem is not the desire to change but that many of my day by day practices are still bogged down in the old self. I still practice thinking from my old self, my old life, my old thoughts.

So over the next however many days until Easter I am choosing to work, to discipline myself toward godliness. I will work on my negative thinking. I will take specific steps to learn to discipline myself day by day as I learn to "take up the cross" and put to death the patterns of thinking of my new life and put on truth. I will learn to say "no" to self and to say "yes" to Christ.

It will be a daily choice. A moment by moment decision to stop and put off the old and put on the new until one by one all of the old thoughts are replaced by new ones.

My first step is to keep a journal of those things that impact my negative thoughts. As God brings them to the forefront I will ask Him to replace them with truth to which I will then put into practice. I will “take off” the old and “put on” truth. In this way the Spirit of God will empower me to destroy the sin of thinking of self too often.

The second thing I will be doing is memorizing Romans 8:1-2, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” which will help me remember that not only am I no longer condemned but I am free. So as those thought of shame (death) and condemnation come I can speak truth into them and remind myself and the enemy that I know that life in the Spirit is what brings LIFE.

As I choose obedience I know that the Spirit of God will empowers me to destroy the sin in my heart.