Overcoming Sinful Habits

The last few posts have been about the Bible's plan for defeating sin in our lives. Briefly, here is how to put this into practice. To defeat sin a person must become aware of the sin that has to be put off. This involves not only knowing that something we do is wrong, but seeing the influence it has on our lives. We should accept that it is sin. We should make ourselves aware of how often we practice this sin and what circumstances trigger the sin.

We also must learn the Biblical alternative for the sin. We should study the Scripture and find what God wants us to put on. What good habit should replace the sin habit? We must make the Scripture a concrete part of our lives.

We also need to restructure our lives. If certain circumstances trigger a sin, then we should avoid those circumstances. If we associate certain things with a sin, then we should get rid of those things.

We must adjust our schedule so that we have time for what God wants us to do. We may need to change our priorities. We should remove everything in our lives that contribute to the sin and add those things that will promote what is godly.

To overcome a sinful habit, we also need to break the chain of sin. We can learn to prevent sin. It is common advice to someone with a bad temper to count to 10 before saying anything. That advice has to do with preventing sin. When dealing with a specific sin, we should learn what leads up to it. We can then deal with the situation before the sin occurs.

Failing to prevent the sin, we should learn how to quickly curtail its effects. We must quickly ask forgiveness and turn away from the sin.

We can also get the help of others. Someone close to us can be used to remind us of what we have said that we will do. We may arrange some signal that a person can give us to warn us that we are headed on the road to that sin. If we truly want to change then we will accept all the help that we can get.

There are two final elements to overcoming sin. We must look at our lives as a whole. Every area of our life affects other areas. We may need to make many changes if we are going to have victory over sin.

Finally, we need to start practicing the new behaviour. We need to put on the new habit by doing it. This should be done at the same time we are putting off the old habit. Slowly the new way will replace the old. We will have victory over the sin.