Have You Felt Like Giving Up Lately?Sýnishorn

Victory Over Your Besetting Sin

David’s sin of adultery immediately followed one of his greatest victories. This great man of God, basking in the glory of his greatest victory, began to lust after Bathsheba, killed her husband, Uriah, and committed adultery with her. “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord” (2 Sam. 11:27).

To a man after his own heart, God had to say, “I will raise up adversity against you from your own house” (2 Sam. 12:11). Shortly after, his beloved son Absalom turned against him, and David fled for his life into the wilderness. What a pitiful sight!

We have had quite enough teaching on how to cope with our problems and fears. We have not had enough teaching on how to deal with sin in our lives. You can’t heal cancer by putting patches on it. It has to be removed. 

How do you overcome a sin that has become a habit? Where is the victory over a besetting sin that almost becomes a part of your life? You can hate that sin; you can keep swearing you will never do it again; you can cry and weep over it; you can live in remorse over what it does to you; but how do you walk away from it? How do you reach the point where that sin no longer enslaves you?

I have no formulas, no simple solutions. I do know there is much comfort in the Bible for those who are fighting battles between the flesh and the spirit. Paul fought the same kinds of battles, against the same kinds of enemies. He confessed, “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Rom. 7:19).

Paul cried out, just as all mankind does, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24). He goes on to say, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 7:25).

Yes, we know. Victory over all our enemies is through Jesus Christ the Lord. But how do we get the power out of his vine into our puny little branches? 

1. Learn to hunger for holiness and to hate your besetting sin. 

2. Be convinced God loves you in spite of your sin. 

3. Accept the Father’s loving help in resisting and overcoming sin. 

Do you want victory over all your enemies? Then go at it the right way by dealing ferociously with your besetting sin. Remove the accursed thing in your life, and you will become mighty in God. “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [surround or harass] us” (Heb. 12:1).