I wish I could deal with wrong and sinful behavior as easily as I delete files from my computer.

First, I’d click on “Select All.” Yikes! It’s a much bigger file than I thought. Then I’d hit “Delete.” Voila! All my bad and sinful habits are gone.

Incredible!

Alas, it doesn’t work this way. Therefore, it may be time to take a serious inventory of our choices and their end results.

Romans 6:13 (ESV) says,

Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

If you look back at your choices over the past year, to whom did you present yourself? Did you present yourself to sin or to God? For unrighteousness (wickedness, immorality) or righteousness (goodness, godliness)?

Why do we get sucked into doing things we never would have considered a few years or even a few months ago? Can you remember a time when you’d never dream of experimenting with drugs, checking out porn sites or lying to your spouse?

Why do we feel compelled to present or hand over ourselves (physically or mentally) to behavior that will bring about negative consequences? What would happen if we asked God to remind us what our bad choices cost us the last time we offered our members (parts) of our bodies to sin?

Or are we too content with tolerating sin in our life?

The next time we’re tempted to hold onto unforgiveness, risk gambling away our savings on a “sure bet” or give into a recurring sin, we can either kick ourselves and hope the self-loathing won’t last as long as it did last time, or we can experience a true sense of victory.

The consequence of sin has a snowball effect: it becomes easier to give into temptation the next time. Each time we choose to give into sin, our despair that we’ll never change increases.

Thankfully, the reverse is also true. Each time we choose to obey God, our confidence in His ability to keep us from future sin increases.

God’s grace to obey his Word is always available. What would our lives be like if, rather than hitting a fantasy delete button to take away all our sinful habits, we tapped into God’s grace and gave ourselves completely over to Him?

As we read God’s Word, pray for His strength and (when needed) hold ourselves accountable to someone else, we can experience God’s power, even in – and especially in – our weakest moments.

Incredible!

What about you?

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this post. (Your comment might also benefit others.)

• How will your next moment of temptation go down?

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