From Temptation to Triumph: Victory over Habitual Sins (Part 3)

In part 2 of this study we learned that God’s forgiveness is so complete that He chooses to not even remember our sins after we repent (and what it means to truly repent).

Today we will focus on temptation and overcoming habitual sins, so that we don’t keep repeating the same behaviors over and over.

We Have the Victory

How do we begin to overcome these habitual sins? Our success depends completely on following our Heavenly Father. Once we truly understand that, no matter how difficult it may be, or how long it takes, we will win. Why? Because God is not somewhere far away. He promises that He is with us, will strengthen us, will uphold us, and is even holding our hands:

keep those promises close to your heart. In Deuteronomy 31:8 God says that He will never leave or forsake us, but here’s the thing: we have to not leave or forsake Him either. It’s our choice to either walk with the Lord or walk away from Him; one direction leading to eternal life, the other to eternal death.

There comes a point when we have to make the decision to do the right thing in the face of temptation. We have to be willing to exercise discipline and say ‘no’ to our flesh body even when it’s screaming at us to do the opposite. This is when we have to walk in the spirit and not in the flesh (Galatians 5:16, 25).

Temptation: Know Your Enemy

To walk in the spirit and have the victory God promises, we need to understand everything we can about temptation, because it’s the first step in sinning. When we’re tempted to do something that we know is contrary to God’s Word, we can either resist or give in and satisfy our own desires.

Knowing where temptation comes from and how to handle it is important. But first, we need to realize that it’s never God who tempts us to sin:

The ultimate goal of temptation is the spiritual death of our souls: temptation leads to sin, and sin leads to death (Romans 6:23). That’s not what our Father wants for us. His desire is for all of His children to accept eternal life.

God is not to blame when we are tempted to sin, and then succumb to that temptation. If God isn’t tempting us, then who is?

There are three sources of temptation spoken of in Scripture: Satan, the flesh, and the world we live in. While Satan is not always directly tempting us, he is certainly indirectly involved, and there is significant overlap among all three sources. For example, Satan or evil spirits will exploit our flesh or worldly desires and weaknesses.

Three Sources of Temptation

Satan:

It’s clear from this verse alone that Satan is the god of this world (age), but only to the extent that God allows Him to be, in order to fulfill His plan. Notice the lowercase “g” in “god?” That’s how it’s written in the King James Bible because Satan is not, and never will be, our God. We don’t walk in the ways of the world anymore, so we are no longer the “children of disobedience,” spoken of in Ephesians 2:2. Instead, we love and believe in the one and only true God, following Him and doing our best to obey His Word.

Satan was created by God and remains under His absolute authority, which means he has no power except that which is given by God. While Satan’s spirit can influence the world, he can only do so within the limits set forth by our Heavenly Father. This is part of God’s overall plan, allowing us the free will to choose who we want to follow. When we choose God, Satan loses his influence over us because God has given us power over all of our enemies, through Jesus Christ (Luke 10:19).

Still, Satan is called The Tempter for a reason (Matthew 4:3), and we are warned to be aware of his schemes:

Satan is our adversary; our enemy who hates God and anyone who follows Him. His evil spirit, along with demons and other dark entities, exist and they do influence us. If we let them, they will create all kinds of problems in our lives, with the sole purpose of leading us away from God.

Satan knows how to make the things that will destroy your life seem appealing, and he knows how to use your personal weakness to lure you down the wrong path. This is one reason we’re told in Ephesians 6:11 to “put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

The word wiles, G3180 in the Strong’s, means trickery and lies. Satan and other evil spirits use these things to tempt you, but the armour of God is your protection, so you need to know what that armor is. Ephesians 6:12-20 will tell you.

While it’s true that we need to remain aware of Satan’s presence, my pastor had a saying that I loved: “Satan and demonic spirits are real, but there isn’t one behind every bush.” It’s important to realize that the majority of our temptations come from within ourselves. It’s our own fleshly desires that entice us to sin (James 1:14).

Now, Let’s look at the other two sources of temptation: the world we live in and the flesh body. Since both of these are so interwoven, we’ll examine them together.

The World and Flesh:

In this lesson, when we talk about the flesh, we are not referring to our physical body. We are referring to our human nature without God: our traits, thought processes, desires, and so on.

Likewise, when we discuss the world, we are not referring to the physical earth. We are talking about the world system: our values as a society, worldly possessions, ways of life, traditions, norms, etc.

All we have to do is listen to the news for a day and look at what’s going on around us to see that we live in a fallen world. Why? Because, God allows our world system to be governed by Satan, and It will remain this way until he is destroyed by God. Until then, we have to fight a very real spiritual war against evil- which includes Satan, demons, nefarious spirits, and our own fleshly desires. We can not fight this battle successfully without our Heavenly Father (Ephesians 6:12).

God is telling us that we have a choice to make. We can love the things of this world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-or we can love Him, but we cannot love both. James 4:4 solidifies the point even further, saying if we we’re friends with the world then we are enemies of God. We cannot be fond of this world system that is run by Satan and still be faithful to God. They are opposed to one another and we have to decide which one we want.

Of course, we choose God. But these temptations are still all around us in the world and within our own hearts.

The word lust is often associated with sexual desire, but it means more than that. It can be the desire for other things that God has forbidden as well. Lust, G1939 in the Strong’s, means ‘a longing, especially for that which is forbidden.’

Being ‘drawn away of our own lust’ can happen in an instant. Imagine you have a problem with pornography. You’re scrolling through social media, and all of sudden a seductive picture appears, inviting you to ‘click here’ for more. In that instant you have a choice to make: move on immediately or entertain the idea of clicking the link.

The moment you don’t move on, you’ve set yourself up for failure. We cannot allow our minds to linger on what is tempting us, not even for a moment. God tells us how lust progresses:

We will never be perfect, and God Knew that when He created us flesh. It’s why His plan of salvation included repentance. Still, we cannot let our own lusts, which are of this world, drag us away from God. We must learn to live in this world with all its temptations, yet not be a part of it. Thankfully, God’s Word provides us with the answers we need.

Temptation of Jesus

We know that one of the primary ways Satan tries to influence us is through temptation. He even tried and failed to tempt Christ Himself. You can read about it in Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13. It’s also mentioned in Mark 1:12-13. You should definitely take the time to read these verses because we learn by Christ’s example, but here’s what happened:

Led by the Holy Spirit, our Savior spent 40 days in the wilderness with nothing to eat, so of course He was very hungry. That’s when Satan showed up and tempted Him three times:

• Satan tells Jesus to turn stones into bread so he can eat.
• Satan takes Jesus to the top of the temple, and tells Him that if He’s truly the son of God then jump off and God’s angels will protect you.
• Satan takes Jesus to a mountaintop and offers to give Him all the kingdoms of the world, if He will kneel down and worship him.

Before we look at how Jesus handled Satan’s temptation, I want to give you something to think about. It’s easy to make the mistake of thinking “yeah, but He’s Christ, so it was not as hard for Him to resist Satan.” It’s true that He’s God’s son, but He was in a flesh body, subject to the same feelings of hunger, pain, etc. that we all experience.

We see many passages in the God’s Word that prove this. For example, the shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35: “Jesus wept.” In many other places, including Mark 1:41, we see that Christ felt compassion. Or what about when He cleansed the temple in Matthew 21:12-13. He was angry at what was taking place there (righteous indignation).

There is no doubt that Jesus felt a wide range of emotions during His time on earth. He also experienced physical pain and suffering when He was beaten, brutally tormented, and then crucified on the cross. Our precious Lord and Savior could have saved Himself, but instead He endured it all to save us. There is no greater love than what Jesus did for us.

With that in mind, let’s return to the moment when Jesus was tempted by Satan and see how He responded.

He relied on the Holy Spirit.

Right before going to the wilderness where He was tempted, Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River. When He came up out of the water He was filled with The Holy Spirit.

God’s spirit is within all of us too, when we accept His son Jesus Christ. We need to call upon and rely on the Holy Spirit to help us in times of temptation. As Paul said in Galatians 5:16, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” God’s Holy Spirit will not only help us to have victory over Satan, but also our own sinful desires.

He used the Word of God, which is always truth.

Jesus resisted Satan by quoting scripture. Therefore, just as Jesus did, arm yourself with God’s Word. This doesn’t mean that we have to memorize the entire Bible, but rather that we know what God’s overall plan is, what He expects of us, and His promises to us.

Satan will tempt you when you’re most vulnerable and he’ll use your own personal weakness against you. For example, if you’re a new Christian and trying to break a drug habit, you can count on your drug-of-choice being more readily available than it was when you were not trying to quit, and didn’t necessarily care about God.

Why? Because when you seek God, Satan tries to entice you away from Him with lies. You have to be prepared for it. So, read and study the Bible often. It’s our weapon against temptation, in fact it’s part of the armor of God (referred to as the Sword of the Spirit) that we read about earlier in Ephesians 6:17.

If you’re able to, memorize some verses, especially ones pertaining to your situation. For example, God promises that He will never allow us to be tempted beyond what we can handle, and will always show us a way out (1 Corinthians 10:13). He also declared that if we resist Satan then he will flee from us (James 4:7). Knowing God’s Word is powerful. It allows us to stand firm and fight Satan’s lies with God’s truth.

Christ commanded Satan to leave

You’ll notice that Jesus didn’t ask or argue with Satan; He commanded him to leave. God gave us the power over Satan and his demonic spirits, so we can do the same. But always remember our authority comes only through Christ. When you recognize that Satan is trying to tempt you into doing something, don’t allow it. Command him to leave in the name of Jesus Christ, and he has no choice but to go.

Next Steps

We will be tempted, and being prepared by knowing what we’re going to do when the time comes will give us an advantage.

Let’s end this study with a list of additional steps we can take to finally be rid of the habitual sins in our lives.

Pray often

Prayer should be a regular part of your daily routine. Don’t wait until right before bed to talk to God.

You don’t need to be in a particular location to pray. Prayer is simply speaking to your Heavenly Father from your heart. Whether out loud or in silence, God knows your thoughts and hears you anywhere, anytime. Make it a habit to include Him in every part of your life by talking to Him throughout the day.

Along with daily prayer, don’t neglect reading your Bible. I know we already spent time on this subject, but it’s so important. My pastor used to call the Bible the love letter God left for us, and it really is. Staying in God’s Word means reading, meditating, and studying the Bible every day and applying what you’ve learned to your life:

Avoid, Resist, and Flee

This is such an important verse to remember because temptations will always be a part of our lives. The word submit means to obey, so when we obey God then Satan will leave us alone, at least for the time being. Why? Because Satan has no real authority over us. He cannot force us do anything. All he can do is try to tempt or deceive us.

Just as we teach our children to resist temptation and make the right choices, we, also need to learn to do the same. When we find ourselves being tempted, we have to resist and make the decision to do what is pleasing to God, even when it’s difficult and not what we want to do at that moment.

Learning to tell yourself “no” the second you are confronted with temptation is key. As soon as you begin thinking sinful thoughts, squash them right then and there. By doing so, ‘bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ,’ as we’re told to do in 2 Corinthians 10:5. Why is this so important? Because the sinful behavior that you’re trying to overcome begins with your lustful thoughts (James 1:14-15).

There may be times in our lives when resisting temptation doesn’t just mean standing firm; it also means knowing when to flee.

Just as Joseph fled from Potiphar’s wife when she tried to seduce him (Genesis 39:12), sometimes the best way to resist is to remove ourselves from the situation entirely:

You not only flee from the temptation you’re currently facing, but also, don’t put yourself in situations that may entice you to begin with. It’s best to avoid the people or places that encourage sinful behavior.

For example:

If you’re tempted by porn, resist by staying away from websites where you are likely to run into it.

If you’re trying to quit drinking, don’t hang out where people are consuming alcohol.

If you’re married and find yourself attracted to someone other than your spouse, resist the temptation by keeping your distance and avoiding unnecessary interaction with that person.

If you find yourself continually falling into the same trap, especially when fighting any kind of addiction, think about ways you might be making it easier for the enemy (or your own desires) to tempt you. Ask God to help you in your effort to flee from these things, to stay away from them.

No Excuses

I don’t know about you, but I’m really good at justifying my behavior.

The problem is, excuses allow us to avoid confronting behaviors that need to be changed, keeping us trapped in our habitual sins. When I was fighting my own addiction, I often told myself, “God knows my heart, so He knows I tried.” I wasn’t using this as a reason for forgiveness; it was more of an excuse to do what I wanted.

I made plenty of other excuses to justify my behavior, but they only left me stuck in the endless cycle of misery that we discussed in part one of this study.

The bottom line is, we have to take responsibility and admit that the decision to give into temptation, no matter the source, is always our own. Satan may tempt us, but he cannot force us to take action. That’s on us. Once we admit this to our Heavenly Father and ourselves, we can begin to change our behavior instead of justifying it, paving the way for true healing and growth in our relationship with God. Each time we overcome temptation we get better at it and become closer to our Father.

Talk to someone you trust or join a support group

This step is something that not everyone will want (or need) to do. The only one we are required to confess our sins to is God, but some people do find it helpful to confide in someone they trust for support and accountability.

When it comes to addiction, it’s more than just a physical battle, it’s mental and emotional as well. Thankfully, there are programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), and many others that can help people to become (and stay) free from addiction.

Don’t let anyone make you feel ashamed for choosing to use such programs. It doesn’t mean you’re weak or that you lack faith in God. Remember, these programs are not about religious beliefs or replacing God. They are tools meant to help you achieve and maintain sobriety in a supportive group setting.

Don’t ever give up

Our Heavenly Father is on your side. As long as you keep trying, you’re going to win the battle. God promises that when we draw near to Him, He draws near to us (James 4:8). The only way to lose is by giving up, so don’t even consider it an option. Keep praying, stay in God’s Word.

You know something? You may stumble and make mistakes that you consider failures, but God looks and sees you as His precious child taking the time to read His Word and sincerely trying to live according to His will. When you ask for His forgiveness, He removes your sins and never remembers them again. Why? Because He loves you with deep affection-an everlasting love (John 3:16). He wants you to return that love and accept His free gift of salvation and eternal life.

Conclusion

There is so much more written in God’s Word about the topics we’ve covered. This lesson barely scratches the surface, but here’s what you need to remember: God loves you right where you are today, even with your struggles and sins. We all have sinful behaviors that we have to work through. God knows our weaknesses, and He still chooses to love us. The most important thing is that we keep seeking Him. As long as we’re willing to sincerely try, God will always be there with open arms, ready to help us grow and give us victory over sin, habitual sin, and addiction.