7 Tips on How to Overcome Temptations & Addicted Sins.

As a Christian, after you genuinely give your life to Jesus and become a new person in Him, your soul is saved and washed by the blood of Jesus Christ , your conscience is cleansed by His blood and your spirit is restored in connection with God. But your body is not affected by the spiritual transformation.

When you are saved, you will not see any change of color or stature in your body as a result of the salvation of your soul. It’s the same unaffected body that will want to drag back you into sin, into old life, because your body has nothing to loose, your body has no heaven to go, your body is a mortal and dust. Your body is temporal, it’s earthly and will disappear by reason of time. It is that same body that the devil uses to drag people back to sin after they are saved. The body, your flesh, influenced by Satan, will demand contrary to the Spirit of God inside you, will want you to please it and displease God.

This flesh, your body, brings temptation and want to retain the ungodly pleasure it is used to, and that is addicted sin and temptation in your new life in Christ Jesus. Addicted sins are the sinful lifestyles, things or attitude we were used to before we became born again. And they want to come over again in our new lives in Jesus. And temptation, it is ungodly suggestions of Satan into your mind, simple! The purpose of temptation is to make us sin against God and against our own souls for destruction.

The object of temptation is from outside, but the desire and suggestion is from within. So then, temptation is a seduction to sin, either old addicted sin or new general, common sins. Temptation comes on a daily bases and on different bases; your personal relationship with God depends on how you overcome temptations.

We need to know that temptation itself is not a sin, either from within by our thought or from without through people or things, it is falling into temptation that becomes sin; it is also a sin to get or go close to the appearance of sin. It is sin to go or get close to what you know may lead to sin by using vain boldness which is tempting God and the Bible commands us not to tempt God. Temptation comes from within or without, from your mind, your body, your feeling; from people, from Satan; pressure, persuasion or persecution, but the good news is that the power lies on you to decide, to sign or silent the temptation; that is your power of decision. Here are 7 tips that will always help us to overcome every form of temptation or addiction on our ways:

(1) Hold Your Peace The undiscovered truth about sin is that behind every sin in life is a demon, satanic spirit that inspires people to that sin. Every persuasion and pressure to sin comes from these assigned demons; they use people, our feeling, minds and flesh to persuade us. The real image was made clear when Satan was tempting Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus was seeing Satan clearly because Jesus could see everything. We may not see Satan or his demons when they come to persuade us to sin, but we should do what Jesus did. When this pressure of the addicted sins or persuasion to sin come, it will be as if you cannot survive it, as if you cannot do without it, you know what? Just hold your peace and look beyond the people or the objects of the temptation and do as Jesus did: rebuke the demon behind in Jesus name. "Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan!" and the next thing, "Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him." Matthew 4:10, 11.

Don't bother yourself about the pressure within or without, satan is behind them, pushing them to persuade you. You may feel as if you are so weak to resist, but don't fall anyway. Since you don't use your power, you use the Word of God and name of Jesus to resist satan who is behind every sin. The pressure to sin, to have sex, to smoke, to lie, to masturbate, etc will overwhelm your body and feeling as if you will die if you don't do it, it is not so; you just hold your peace with God's word and you will see the feeling going down. The demon of that sin cannot stay long, he comes within few minutes, if you hold it and resist in that period, and you will overcome. That is the truth about temptation and addicted sins.

(2) Take a situation at a time When temptation comes in an overwhelming manner, the devil will whisper to you,"Look, you are so weak, you cannot survive this. Even if you resist it now, what about tomorrow? What about next week? What about next month? Look at yourself, pretending. You can't make it, it is better to surrender now, God will understand." That is a plain lie from the pit of hell; the truth is that when you overcome it now, you will overcome it later. Each victory will grant you more strength against the next temptation. Take it at a time; God who helps you to overcome this will help you better to overcome the next one. Don't be bothered by tomorrow temptation, for grace comes when the temptation comes. "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it." 1 Corinthians 10:12-14

(3) Think the right way! The beginning of falling into temptation is by thinking about the benefits of the temptation. So, don’t think about the benefits you will enjoy in that temptation, but think about the Word of God, think about the displeasure the temptation will bring to your Lord and Savior, think about the WORD of God and use it to resist the devil. Devil will suggest the benefits, pleasure, gain, etc in the temptation, but you must reject such and think about the Word of God and how terrible you will displease your God- displeasing your loving Savior? ….How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” Genesis 39:9

(4) Compare! Compare the magnitude of the consequences, of breaking your promise to God just for the minor/momentary pleasure of the temptation. How will you loose everything just for nothing? Consider your dedication unto God, the grace of God upon your life, the anointing of God, the growing nature of God in your life, the joy of salvation, the peace and presence of God and the confidence of heaven; think about how everything will vanish if you fall into that temptation in which you may not even have a second chance? Satan will present temptation to sin as simple as doing it and going back to Jesus for forgiveness. That yours is to sin and God's is to forgive, that God will understand. All these are satanic devices and you must not be ignorant of them.…..Hebrews 12:15, "looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; 16 lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. 17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears."

(5) Ask Yourself! Ask yourself if the passing benefits of the temptation are enough to make you sin and displease your Savior who loves you so much. Just be sincere with yourself! … How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” Genesis 39:9

(6) Run! In every temptation, there is a root of escape, so after you think well, you must run immediately from the scene of the temptation. Don’t wait for another change, run now! Running can be leaving the place immediately, blocking access to the person or object of the temptation, it can be resounding and reaffirming your stand for the Lord, it can also be informing somebody about the temptation (this can be your partner, your parents or pastor. You need to know that when you are struggling with a temptation, sharing with the right person brings relief and help. But if your partner or pastor is the source of the sinful temptation, there is always a right, godly person to share with. Don’t keep it to yourself alone.) Running can also be cutting of interaction, relationship or visitation, it can be destroying or deleting the stuffs that lead to temptation, it can also be excusing yourself from the scene and so on.

Bible says, “Watch & Pray”, it’s not, “pray and watch”. The first thing is to watch, which is running. Watch, not speaking in tongues, not praying and staying there, run for your life! Genesis 39:12, “that she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside."

(7) Pray Always! If running from the appearance of temptation is watching, then praying is praying. Praying for God’s grace, strength, guidance and deliverance from temptation every day even before any temptation comes, since temptation is bound to come our ways. Matthew 6:13, "And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen"

……. then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the Day of Judgment. 2 Peter 2:9

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