Tuesday, August 23, 2022
Now the salvation, and
the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have
come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them
before our God day and night. Revelation
12:10
How Satan Lures Us Into Cycles of Sin
Why do people continue to feel false
guilt even though they know they are forgiven? After all, if Christ paid the
penalty for our sins, why do some Christians still have an overactive
conscience and continue to feel guilt so acutely?
Sin is an evil that we will have to
fight our whole earthly lives – because we are human and weak. When we become a
child of Christ our desire for sinful things and our fleshly tendencies do not
disappear. Life would be so much easier if they would. But that is a tension
that will always be a part of our lives. Even when we repent of sin the desire
does not automatically go away.
I’m sorry”
does not mean I did not enjoy the sin!
The problem with sin is not
that it is unenjoyable, it is that it is deadly. – Van Houser
Christians are not exempt from
Satan’s deception. Satan preys on Christians and their weakness. He makes it easy for us to get involved in
something wrong and then trap us there, or at least make us think we are trapped.
We may ask forgiveness and turn away from sin for a while only to find ourselves
right back where we started from. Cycles of sin are so easy to get swept into
and yet, just like trying to swim against the current, they are so very hard to
get out of - and stay out of.
Here are some ways that Satan traps
us in our sin:
·
Shame – He
likes it when we are ashamed, especially when it keeps us from coming before
God and asking for forgiveness and restoration.
He makes us believe that we are ruined and we can never be good enough
for God to love or want or use again. He
also wants us to feel that we have no right to call on God for help or stand up
to someone or say anything because we are so sinful and worth less. All are lies from Satan! God loves us no matter what and He forgives
and hears when we call on His name, no matter where we call from.
·
Pressure – We
often feel pressure from others to do things or be something we don’t want to
be. It is easy to cave into that pressure when we give hard answers or say no
and then feel the backlash. Things start
to unravel, and we quickly grab the threads and start tying knots to stop it by
backtracking through what we did that caused the upheaval. Even if it was the right thing to do, we quickly
do everything we can to quiet the situation and make everyone happy again.
·
Circumstances – Our
circumstances can sometimes keep us involved in cycles of sin. Change is
required to stop something in our lives and go a different direction. Sometimes it is hard to get out of these
cycles without monetary help or support of family and oftentimes that is just
not available. A move, a job change that
means less money, a new school for our children, all these can be reasons that
may stop us in our tracks and cause us to go backward.
All these are reasons that Satan uses to keep us where he wants us to be
and where we are less useful for the kingdom of God. He wants us to feel trapped, worthless and
helpless. You can break free with God’s
help. Stop the cycle and quit
backtracking today. Go forward in the
direction God is leading and don’t look back.
