Sin Wants You, But You Must Rule Over It

My friends, greetings!

As disciples of Christ, we must live in obedience and not let sin rule over us. Genesis 4:7 tells us that sin wants you, but you must rule over it. How can we rule over sin? Paul in Romans 8:14 tells us that the true children of God are those who let God's spirit lead them. That's right, we must obey God's laws and live a life that is pleasing to God. Paul tells us that if we use our lives to do the wrong things our sinful selves want, we will die spiritually. If we use the Spirit's help to stop doing the wrong things we do with our bodies, we will have true life (Romans 8:12-13). My friends, we let sin rule over us when we gossip, when we envy, when we become jealous, angry, and selfish. Sin rule over us when we commit fornication or other sexual sin in our minds, heart, and thoughts. Paul encourages us that we get new life from the Spirit when we crucify ourselves of these sins. As a believer, we inherit the spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self control. These are the spirit that we must have living and abiding in us. You will know when you have the fruits of the spirit because you will handle situations a whole lot differently than when you were caught up in the sinful self.

I thank God for the fruits of the spirit because I know they live and abide in me. My friends, when I was out there in the world, I did what the world wanted me to do--I sin non-stop in every way imaginable, but thanks be to God, He has forgiven a wretch like me, and now I no longer do those things of the world, or at least I try not to. I can tell you, I don't even want to go back to those old ways. I don't know about you, but when I look back at the mess I used to do and say, it's like I have to take a shower or rinse my mouth out with soap (like Mr. Brown says he has to do when Edna talks and behaves nasty!). I am telling you the honest truth, when I hear people calling other people out of their names, it just bothers me, I have to say something to them because it insults me; it's like I can't even stand to hear bad words or hear people talk bad about other people. That's the fruit of the spirit working in me. Thank you Lord.

My friends, I still have a long way to go in my Christian walk, but my goal is to be Christ-like. I want to live a life that when you see me, you see His light shining through me. To be Christ-like, we must not let sin rule over us; we must rule over sin. To rule over sin, we must stop doing what we used to do that is displeasing unto God and start doing what is pleasing to God.

If you are a committed Christian and you are still living in the same sinful way, Paul warns that you will die spiritually. As Christians, we should be living, our spirituality should become more and more mature in Christ. My friends, you just never know when someone is looking to you for their answer. The way you live your life and the way you talk as a Christian can mean the difference between someone giving their life to Christ and someone walking away from Christ. Do you want to be held responsible before God for allowing a child to walk away from His kingdom?

Pray, pray, pray. We need to become better stewards of God's kingdom and we can only do that when we rule sin and not the other way around.

God bless.
Ta ta,
Therese from Belize