Do you sometimes feel as though you are being controlled by something else? Do you have sudden urges to do things you know you shouldn’t do? Have you tried to stop yourself and been unable? Have you sought the power of God to overcome them?
Living in this world brings many temptations to us. Those temptations come in every variety imaginable. When we stumble and fall prey to them, we feel guilty. We may commit to not allowing that to happen again. We may pray that God forgive us. Neither may make us feel better.
How do we overcome these temptations? As we read through today’s passage, the Apostle Paul gives us sound advice. First, he tells us not to present ourselves to the temptation. That can range from standing firm and refusing it to not putting ourselves in a position for it to be presented to us. Staying away from situations where the temptation can come before us can be difficult, but it is easier than standing firm against the temptation. Most of us do not have a strong enough will to resist it.
Second, Paul tells us that sin has no dominion over us. This wonderful news! We no longer live by the law. We live in God’s grace. That means we can trust God to forgive us. Therefore, there is no need to feel guilty when we stumble. However, this can be a slippery slope. We can then take advantage of God’s grace and continue in our sin.
What are we to do? The best we can do is lay our lack of resistance at Jesus’ feet. We need to ask Him to remove the temptation from us. We need to ask Him to strengthen our will with His will. We may need to do this several times before we are truly willing to accept His help. Even so, we should continue to lay it as His feet until we have overcome sin with Jesus’ strength.
I pray we all recognize the temptations put before us. I pray we see our weakness in resisting. I pray each one of us will lay our weakness at Jesus’ feet and accept His help in overcoming sin. Overcome temptations. Lay your weakness at Jesus’ feet. Sin has no dominion over you. Live in God’s wonderful grace.
Romans 6:13-14 No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Marty Pressey 