Fighting the pleasure of sin

How do you fight the pleasure of sin? I'll tell you: with another pleasure. Holiness is not attained, at least not in any lasting, life-changing way, merely through prohibitions, threats, fear, or shame-based appeals. Holiness is attained by believing in, trusting, banking on, resting in, savoring, and cherishing God's promise of a superior happiness that comes only by falling in love with Jesus. The power that the pleasures of sin exert on the human soul will ultimately be overcome only by the superior power of the pleasures of knowing and being known, loving and being loved by God in Christ. (Sam Storms, Pleasures Evermore, p. 20)

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 24, 2009 at 6:33 AM

    Gail McConnell:Amen to Sam through the Holy Spirit! My spirit is in total agreement with His spirit. The false pleasures of sin in my own life gripped me...sexual immorality, pride, lust for things, dependency on others for approval, a bitter wicked tongue, greed, coveting what others had, the right to be bitter and resentful towards those who abandoned me or betrayed me in thought, word, or deed. These were my idols. They were rooted in me. I desperately needed a MIRACLE in me to transform my heart attitude and to renew my mind to sanity and thinking that lined up with God's Word, which is Truth, which is His Will. I needed the Word, Jesus Himself, to come to me and rip out the original roots of deception that held me as in a vice around these idols and sins.

    Today because of the Cross, Word, and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, I rest and abide in One Source only...His name is Jesus...my Savior, my Lord, my best Friend. In a way that is unexplainable, yet undeniable, I am a very rich rich rich woman. I wear garments of righteousness and I continue to be purified by fire from the inside out. I am no longer afraid of people or of my own feelings. I no longer have to wait to go into the throne room of Grace and give it all to Jesus, Lord, Who sits next to the Father. Today because of the blood of the Lamb, I sit next to the Lamb in the heavnlies, just as He sits next to the Father. Because of Who He is in me, not because of who I am in me (that was the problem in the first place) and not because of what I do (that was the self-willed deception in the first place),I no longer desire to sin. It is no longer a pleasure to me. I have been tempted over and over in the wilderness by the devil (just like Jesus was after He was filled with the Holy Spirit in baptims); I have resisted the devil's schemes because of Who He is in me. After my resistance, I am ministered to by the angels just as Jesus was ministered to by the angels after His resistance to the devil. Sin is always there to tempt me; but now I don't have to sin because greater is He in me (Almighty God) than he (satan the deceiver, accuser, and abuser) who is in the world. In every situation and with every person (Christian or not) I am my Beloveds and He is mine. I have new roots and new clothes. I no longer am rooted by lies and I no longer wear filthy rags of unrighteousness. I know it and I live confidently now because of it.

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