The Desires of Sin - How to Die To Them

In keeping with the thorn, I have this desire that likes to crop up in my life. It's actually a strand of desires that while they aren't sin, they can quickly become the focus of many thoughts and use up quite a lot of time throughout the day. When does a desire become a sin? I believe a desire becomes a sin when it becomes exactly that. James 1:14-15 tells us that "but each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. Then the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is full grown, bringeth forth death." We must daily ask the Lord to deliver us from temptation which is exactly what Jesus asked us to do when he modeled a prayer for his disciples. The question I posed the Lord this morning is, are there any steps I can take to put these desires in their proper place?

We are to be united with Jesus is in His death. How do we do that? We do that by dying to ourselves. That means not only dying to the sin in our lives but dying to everything. It's not that who we are and what are no longer exist, it's that the Lord must make whatever we are completely new. We must be born again. The work doesn't end when we accept the Lord and are born again. We must then get to know the Lord (Col 3.10) by the reading of His word. The word will renew us our minds and make us knowledgeable of God's expectations for his followers. See Col 3:1-8.

Once we know how God wants us to live, we begin to ask the Lord to show us the areas of our life that is in sin and we begin to obey. The Lord tells us that he prefers obedience to the confession of our sins. We're called to keep ourselves from idols. Sometimes we don't know what those idols are but as the Lord reveals them to us we must purge them out. The purging starts with our thoughts. We must test every thought and make it subject to the Lord. This happens by prayer. See 1 John 4:1 and 2 Cor 10:5.

Once we know a thought is not of God, we must stop thinking it! The best way to do that is to think about other things. See Phil 4 on what we ought to be thinking about. If we are tempted to sin, we need to flee the situation like Joseph did when Potipher's wife approached him. We must also be sure that we are doing the work God has asked us to do. This isn't always preaching the gospel outside the home. It's sometimes about doing the laundry, paying the bills, organizing our linen closet and submitting to whom God has put over us. See Titus 2 and 1 Cor 15:58.

Dear believer, trust the Lord. Obey Him in all You know is right. Trust Him with all the outcomes and you will be surprised at the peace you receive and the blessings God gives. He never, ever forgets us.