TIPS & TRICKS TO AVOID SIN

 

Objective

• To avoid betraying God and returning to a sinful lifestyle.
• To learn to be proactive in avoiding sin.
• To achieve and effectively maintain purity in all areas.

Pray

Prayer is very important. It’s always best to start any task by asking God to help you. In this case ask God to give you the wisdom and strength to become more like Christ and to teach you HOW to lead a pure Christian lifestyle. You must keep in mind that we are powerless on our own so we rely entirely on God the source of our blessings and help. Psalms 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” It’s up to us to acknowledge God in everything we do, and trust in Him wholeheartedly in order to receive His ever-present help.

Study the Bible Regularly

I’ve done my best to include plenty of pertinent Scriptures to this site for your benefit. These Scriptures are and excellent starting point to solidify your faith and your position on Christ, but of course there is plenty more where they came from! I suggest studying each of the Scriptures I’ve included and then go a step further by reading the full chapters and getting a fuller understanding of each one, then do some research and cross referencing to discover even more. You will soon discover that the Bible is no ordinary book; it is absolutely unique because it is the word of God. You should be studying it and feeding your spirit with God’s word daily.

Be led by the Spirit of God.

Once you are filled with the gift of the Holy Spirit the challenge will be to actually listen and obey Him instead of ignoring and disobeying Him. The latter grieves the Holy Spirit and opens the door for sinfulness to fill your heart once again. This is precisely what we want to avoid, and the Holy Spirit is in us to assist us in successfully avoiding sin. Not once have I’ve sinned without first ignoring the warnings I got from the Holy Spirit. It’s a strong feeling that says, “You  know this is wrong. Don’t do it!” Time and time again the Holy Spirit was telling me to stop, to not go where I was going, to not make that phone call, to not do what I was about to do, and every time I listened and obeyed I was blessed and avoided all the problems that come with sin. However, whenever I ignored the Holy Spirit to indulge my flesh by sinning, I regretted it and suffered the consequences every single time. Remember our salvation and identity in Christ is predicated on our response to the Spirit: “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9). Keep in mind your feelings change like the wind, so don’t be led by your feelings any more, be led by the Spirit. He’s the one who has your best interests in mind.

Find like-minded people hang out with them.

The Bible says, “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm” (Proverbs 13:20). This means you determine who you’ll be and how you’ll be by who you surround yourself with. So if your goal is to be pure, it’s counterproductive to hang out with impure people. This requires you to assess the people in your life and determine who is good for you and who is bad for you. Anyone who is bad for you needs to be removed from your life immediately, otherwise you’ll suffer from tolerating their sinfulness and the sinful influence they have on you.  This is a critical step in the process so don’t take it lightly or start making excuses to keep the wrong people in your life. If you find yourself low on positive Christian friends, go out and find some. There are plenty of churches and Christian organizations that host plenty of events that you can attend and get to know people who share your goal to lead a pure Christian lifestyle. Connect with these people and build good, positive, and fruitful relationships with them. You might be surprised just how enriching life can be when your circle is filled with fellow Christians who truly love you, support you, and encourage you in Christ.

Don’t give in to peer pressure.

People who are doing wrong don’t like to see people change and start doing what’s right, ESPECIALLY if you used to do wrong with them. So once you make the decision to start cutting sinful people out of your life, you must be prepared to resist their opposition. Those who aren’t willing to change will try to keep you from changing too. You must not fall for this trap. If someone can’t respect your decision to make positive godly changes in your life then you shouldn’t listen to them at all. Cut them off and block them immediately on your phone and social media. Quitting toxic sinful people cold turkey is drastic but absolutely necessary sometimes.  So be prepared to resist all peep pressure before it comes so you won’t be caught off guard. Don’t let them pull you back down into the sinfulness God lifted you out of. Be determined to stay pure and you might just wind up pulling them up!

Don’t fantasize about sin.

One of the quickest and most common ways to fail is to start fantasizing about sin. It’s very much like what happens with many people who have ended bad relationships. When things get difficult and they start feeling lonely they begin to look back on that bad relationship with a selective memory. They reminisce about all the good times and totally ignore all the bad times and all the things that resulted in that broken relationship. Often times these individuals go right back into the toxic relationship they got out of to “try to work it out” and suffer the consequences all over again. This merry-go-round mentality must be broken and it begins by maintaining a full perspective. Remember that the thrill you enjoyed from committing sin was never the end of the story. It’s very much like how drugs work. There’s a high, but the crash that follows is lower than the high was high, and it leaves you worse off than when you began. Then you’re more addicted, you keep going up and down, but each time you go deeper and deeper until you’re miraculously saved from your addiction or you die. It’s the same with sin. That thrill sin brought you was fleeting and what followed was a long list of negative natural and physical consequences. The reason for this is that sin is deceptive. It lures you in with “fun” or a “thrill”, something to entice you, and once you take the bait it swallows you whole with all it’s evil and you always wind up worse off in the end. So don’t fantasize about the thrill and ignore all the negative consequences that come with that thrill. In fact don’t fantasize about sin at all. God hates sin because it separates us from Him. Christians hate sin because it separates us from God. So if you’re fantasizing about being separated from God, something is seriously wrong. Always remember that sin is a thief; it steals everything you have and ultimately desires to steal you life and your eternity. If you fantasize about anything, fantasize about spending eternity in heaven after leading a pure lifestyle abstaining from sin.

Join to a Bible-teaching church.

Church is a good place to be. You’ll learn more about what you should and shouldn’t do and you’ll be surrounded by people who are trying to please God. Find a good Bible-teaching church and make it a priority to attend regularly.

Listen to those who care about you most.

Quite often your parents and other family members who care most about you tried to warn you. They saw you were heading in the wrong direction and tried to keep you from hitting a brick wall, but you were stubborn and ignored them and wound up hitting that brick wall. If that’s the case, apologize to them for not listening, and then start! They are trying to help you and are often speaking from experience. Take the advice. I know several hard-headed young people who refused to listen to anyone around them because they thought they were in love or whatever, and they wound up suffering years of trouble. If you can avoid problems by just listening to godly people and being obedient, then that’s a smart thing to do.

Avoid people, places, and activities that make sinning easier.

Clubs and parties are overrated and you probably already know from experience what happens in those places. A bunch of people getting together to get drunk, do drugs, dance freaky, and have sex are frequently the activities you’ll find at both. It’s VERY difficult to be in at a club or at a party and not do something wrong, so try staying away and do something positive that you won’t regret later. In fact, any place you used to go to sin is a good place to stay away from going forward. If you find yourself in a place where you’re not comfortable or you start to feel tempted to do wrong again, leave immediately. Don’t stay in a place where people are doing what you are trying not to do. If you’re at a get-together that starts to turn wild then get away. Drive away, or call someone to pick you up if necessary. If you stick around you’ll be tempted to participate. And you’ll fall right back down the hole you just dug yourself out of.