Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.
– Philippians 4:8
This verse taught me something a long time ago: Stop concentrating on and thinking about sin that you’re trying to extract from your life, and start focusing on Christ and His mission for you.
A couple of analogies to explain:
1: In riding a motorcycle they teach that in an accident you will hit what you’re looking at. In other words, you will steer to where you’re focused. If you are staring at the truck that is pulling out in front of you, you will hit it. Instead you should always focus your eyes on the way out of the crash.
2: Focusing on the sin we are fighting is like writing 1,000 lines on a piece of paper like we did when we got in trouble at school. “I will not do ______ anymore.” But now what have we just thought about 1,000 times by doing that? LOL!
1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us that “no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. ”
Concentrate on Christ and whatever is good when temptation is lurking….not the sin! I hope that helps somebody win today!