Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature… Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Even after being born again the struggle against sin does not end. That is done away with when Jesus comes back.
The Holy Spirit does aid us and our affections have been drastically altered, but temptation remains. It requires resolute discipline and trust in God to begin cutting off our “old self” and to become better, like Jesus.
I am going to give you a practical set of actions and mindsets that you can adopt to do this well and in a way that improves your well-being instead of destroying it when fall (and that is going to happen, but it is for a good reason!)
“The sins of our earthly nature (that is, all our sinful attitudes and behaviors) deserve the righteous condemnation of God Almighty. They aren’t cute. They aren’t funny. They aren’t attractive. They stink in God’s nostrils… and if we understand their destruction in our lives and to others, they will stink in ours, too. If a rabid wolf came in your room right now, you wouldn’t pet it. You wouldn’t study it. You wouldn’t talk sweetly to it. No, you would kill it because it can’t be redeemed. It can only be killed.” (David Nasser, Day 12)
Jesus instructed His followers to treat sin in the same way, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.”
Jesus is not encouraging real, physical self-harm. He is using hyperbolic language to convey the urgency of our need to get rid of sin and telling us to be ruthless with the methods we use to put sin down.
I have found this to be true from personal experience. So, I think it is wise during your time with God to ask, “what have I been struggling with?” and “what is tempting me right now?”
Once you have the answers to those questions immediately ask this third one, “what can I do to cut off access to it?” Then do it.
If you end up giving in to some sort of temptation, you are also in a place to ask this question, “what brought me here?” and “what can I do to cut off access to it?”
So, if you have a struggle with watching p*rnography and you realize during your quiet time or shortly after that your mind is constructing a plan to pursue sin you can ask,
“What is tempting me right now?” your answer may be, “Well I have full access to it on my phone.” Then you can come up with a battle plan, “I will have somebody I trust set the screen time on my iPhone to limit adult content.” Then you should do that immediately.
Maybe you still fall, then you can go through this process again until you have no access whatsoever to the sin you want so desperately to be gone.
It will take sacrifice, maybe you will even have to have a phone without internet access. Jesus is worth it and don’t forget that Jesus will help you (If you have this specific struggle, I do have plans for a 100-day overcoming addiction program – let me know if you would like that in the comments, which I think you can do anonymously).
What about sins that are less physical and more from the heart (which what was mentioned above is also a heart problem)…. like having a tendency to tear others down with your words. The idea is the same, but the battle will look slightly different. What I can say to that is this:
It seems to be a fact of the Christian life that we will not often feel like doing what God requires us, but we must know that we do not have to feel like doing something in order to obey.
I would tell God often, “If you will take away this desire, then I will…” This will leave you waiting for a long time because God is not concerned with how we feel about a certain action, He is concerned with whether we trust Him in what He says is right.
I would often mask this request with the request, “please strengthen me to….” That is a good thing to ask, but it gets twisted whenever our expectations of God’s strengthening is that He is going to change us in such a way that we will not have any contradictory emotions and that it will feel easy to do.
Do you think Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego felt no fear when defying Nebuchadnezzar before the furnace? Of course, they did, but they trusted and feared God more than man.
Do you think Jesus was only putting on a show for our sake in the garden of Gethsemane? Of course not, and His conclusion was that He would follow God’s will despite the fear and sorrow He felt – even though obedience was hard.
Sin is dangerous to us and the people we care about. We have been transformed, dead to sin and alive in Christ. Let’s be ruthless and super practical in casting it out of our lives. Grace goes beyond forgiveness in that it also strengthens us to do what is right!
I apologize for being so late in posting this one today. I lacked the discipline to wake up this morning at my normal time. I may have needed that sleep because I haven’t felt great today. But! I will reflect and post at my normal time tomorrow.
Deadlift 3×10
Decline Chest Press/Shrugs 3×10
Front raise/Lateral Raises 3×10/10
Stiff Leg Deadlift (or lying leg curls)/Barbell Curl 3×10/10
Standing Calves 3×12
If you have time, consider doing an ab exercise as well – maybe planks for 3 sets for a minute each set?
For nutrition, I recommend not going too strict for the sake of consistency for 40 days.
I will commit to these two rules: