Obtaining Victory Over Sin - NetBibleStudy.com

Victory Over Sin 19We must deal with our past before we can experience freedom in the future. Thesin that troubles us today sank its roots into our life yesterday. We cannot break oursinful habits until we have a new beginning.Satan is particularly adept at using our past to ruin our future. His weapon is theillegitimate use of guilt feelings. Sins multiply in the soil of discouragement. Oneoffense easily leads to another. We are caught in a vicious circle until we realize that ourpast need not control our future. God promises a new beginning.Old regrets from the past keep going round and round in our mind – repeatingover and over in our thoughts like a broken record. We become trapped in one sin oranother. Sinful habits have a domino effect – Satan whispers, “Since you did it once, youmight as well go all the way as often as you like.” That’s why some Christians questionwhether God can change them. They believe they cannot live differently in the futurebecause of the past.Satan delights in this kind of logic. He wants us to think that we have gone toofar, that since the past cannot be reclaimed, we might as well give up. Satan has two liesthat he plies at two different stages. Before we sin, he tells us that one slip does notmatter; it is a trifle; we can easily recover ourselves again. After we have fallen, he tellsus that it is hopeless; we are given over to sin, and need not attempt to rise.Both of these notions are false! One sin does matter! Even one fall can cause us tolose something that can never be recovered. An exquisite vessel can be broken andmended, but it will never be the same. Also, one sin leads to others. It’s like climbing upan icy hill. Even as you attempt to rise, you fall again.But when we do fall, we dare not accept Satan’s second lie, namely, that there isno use in attempting to rise. Our enemy wants us to believe that since the past cannotbe reclaimed, there is no way to break with its power. Can we have a new beginning? Inone sense, No, since the past cannot be relived. Virginity cannot be recovered; ruinedhealth from nicotine, drugs, or gluttony will have to be accepted. Some broken homesmay never be pieced back together. But in a deeply profound sense, we can have a newbeginning. God offers two precious commodities: (1) genuine forgiveness, a blotting outof all our sins – past, present, and future; and (2) the assurance that our past need notcontrol our future. The cycle of sin can be broken,. We can rise again!Listen to God’s promise to a nation possessed with violence, deceit, and sensualcorruption. “`Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are asscarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they will be like wool’”(Isaiah 1:18).THE CONSEQUENCES OF GUILTTo deal with the past is to deal with guilt. Guilty feelings can be like a millstonearound our neck, keeping us tied to our sins and wedded to past failures. Sometimes