Obtaining Victory Over Sin - NetBibleStudy.com

Victory Over Sin 61away. The result --- we begin to feel guilty for not doing what we ought. Puttingmatters off does not relieve tension, but increases it.Perhaps the most tragic consequence of living according to feelings is that sucha life ends up being self-defeating. It seems reasonable to believe that the sure path tohappiness is to be able to do whatever we “feel” like doing. But, anyone who lives bytheir feelings does not enjoy their feelings for very long. Shrugging off responsibilityonly increases guilt. The more we give in to our feelings, the worse we feel! Rather thansatisfying our feelings, we actually irritate them!A woman may be depressed because she is unable to finish her housework. Shehopes that someday she will feel like cleaning out that guest room, vacuuming andshampooing the carpet, and carrying out the pile of magazines, etc. that has collected.But she doesn’t feel like it; furthermore, even if she began today, there will be morework tomorrow. She follows her feelings and lies on the sofa, watching television. Sinceshe is doing what she feels like doing, she should be happy and satisfied --- right?Wrong! Guilt settles upon her like the London fog. Each day she gets morebehind! The amount of work piles up. Her children and her husband are beginning to,(maybe not out and out complaining), but dropping hints about the tasks around thehouse not being done. But, by now, she is so far behind, there is no use trying to catchup. Her frustration will never leave until she chooses to do what she ought to be doing,whether she feels like it or not.The moment we declare war on our besetting sin, we will bump into ourfeelings, (mostly negative ones). We need to be prepared for a feeling of helplessness – anidea that we are the victim of circumstances and desires that we cannot change. Thisfeeling just happens to be the sin of unbelief in a different form. It’s one way Satan usesto get us to believe that either God cannot or will not help us.Very soon, discouragement will pry its way into our life. It usually hits a few daysafter we’ve decided to make a clean break with sin and develop habits of righteousness.Satan’s line goes something like this: “You’ve tried to break this habit and failed. There is noreason to try again. You’re not good enough to expect God to help you.”Another feeling we may have to battle is laziness --- the notion that we need notput too much effort into the Christian life. We’ll want to procrastinate, to put off anyserious attempt at seeking God’s will concerning our problem. Satan never fears ourgood intentions. Only our obedience drives him to distraction.them?”Let’s take a hard look at our feelings and then ask our self, “How can I cope withThe Example of Christ in Coping with Our Feelings