Intro: Do you ever feel powerless against some sinful habit operating in your life? Habits are things we practice. We can have both righteous habits and sinful ones. God celebrates our righteous habits, but what about those sinful ones? How do we rid ourselves of them? Good News: God has a plan.
Every believer has an Advocate—Someone who pleads our case to the Father. Jesus is the One who puts his mantle of grace over our lives and causes us to be successful against the control of sinful habits. He alone is the righteous One who atones for the sins we have committed or will ever commit. However, we must repent of sinful habits, by turning away from sin and toward the Word. If we keep on living with sinful habits against God’s Word, we really have a wrong concept of Christ’s love and the purpose of salvation. Living with a sinful habit reveals we don’t really know God; sin is the opposite of obedience.
If our greatest desire is to remain obedient to the commands of God, our thoughts and actions will push sin away. To know God is to live in the Truth. Jesus teaches the commandment is love; we imitate the love of our Master and Lord. This is how we fight sin. “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind; Love your neighbor as yourself (Mat 22:37-39).
This world is full of temptations to love self more than God or our neighbor [everyone else]. The love of self is consistently exalted in our secular world. Fulfill every desire, live for your pleasure, take what you want, etc. So, we must learn how to be delivered from the evil temptation to demand our own way. Submit yourself to God and resist the devil who wants to rob you. If you do not give the devil power, he will leave and you will be able to live the Truth in God’s strength. Scripture teaches, “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure (1 Cor 10:13).
1 John 2:1-6 (NLT)
1 My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. 2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.
3 And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. 4 If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. 5 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. 6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for helping me live in the Truth of your divine love. I cast upon you every selfish or sinful thought or habit that tries to attach itself to me knowing you will help me escape into righteousness. In Jesus’ name. Amen.