The 7 ResolutionsSample

Kill Sin

What would it be like for you to beat sin? To get a win over that one area of your life that keeps holding every part of you down?

Sin does not need to define you nor consume you. Sin is exhausting, especially when you’re battling in secret, and you see no way to get a win. You can’t hide it, deny it, or play with it another day. You have to kill sin, and this is not some term unique to me. God invented the idea of dealing with sin by putting it to death. God’s Word indicates that dealing with sin is like a bloody battle—something has to die (Col. 3:5; Rom. 6:11-12)

Exposing our sin to God and others is the first step of victory over sin. He wants you to bring your sin into the light of truth by confessing it to Him and friends. When you bring sin into the light of truth, three powerful things happen. 1. The cleansing process begins and it’s thorough. 2. You realize you’re not alone/not the only one. 3. You live in authentic community and are freed from shame and isolation. You can take a small step right now. In just a few words, tell God what sin or sins have a grip on you. He knows already, but authentic faith is relational, and your proximity to God will be tighter as the result of your coming clean.

The second step to getting victory over sin, is to make a plan of attack. We discuss sin, find accountability for sin, get counseling for sin, and deal with sin in ways that end up leaving the sin intact and us in pieces. These are all good things, but eventually you need to come to the “Y” in the road of deciding to put sin to death and finding a strategy for how to do it. If you have a credit card weakness, leave it home, cut it in half, or melt it, but don’t have it handy. Ever! If wine, beer, the stiff stuff, or other drugs are owning you, get them out of easy reach, and find those trigger points or trigger people and remove them as much as possible.

Finally, we can get victory over our sin by overwhelming it with the Holy Spirit. If a day in your life is like a fifty-five-gallon drum that contains your day, you have fifty-five gallons of something to put in it. The way to kill sin proactively is to fill up (fifty-five gallons if needed) in the Spirit and leave no room for sin (Gal 5:16). Sometimes we’re so fixated on not sinning we never get on with living. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is about raising the sails of your soul and letting God fill them. It’s about saturating yourself with so much good stuff that the bad stuff has no place to grow.

We can be filled with the Spirit by memorizing liberating truth, singing songs that ignite our soul and lift it, participating in a Bible study that helps us meet with God in His Word, hanging out with people who are on the same path, and being mindful of the Holy Spirit’s voice because He is always speaking.

Expose it, attack it, overwhelm it. Wield these three weapons for killing sin with spiritual enthusiasm, and I’m fully confident that the sin that has you by the throat today will be under God’s foot tomorrow.

STRATEGY FOR BATTLE

• EXPOSE IT — Bring that sin to mind that needs to die. Courageously face it. Confess it to God and come into agreement with Him that you have this in your life and it has to go. Call a trusted friend, pastor, or mentor and confess this sin as well to them.
• ATTACK IT — Take extreme measures to kill what’s killing you. Remember that limiting access is one of the most practical ways to starve the supply lines of sin.
• OVERWHELM IT — It’s time to fill your life with the Spirit. Give God more of your life, so sin has less room to run and grow.