21 Comments
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Daniel  Buckley's avatar

Another strategy, as written in the Lord's Prayer "Lead me not into temptation ..."

Avoid the near occasion of sin. Don't test your resolve and discipline. Maintain your reserves until you need them unavoidably.

Simple Man's avatar

100%, that's similar to what I meant towards the end of the article. Don't play stupid games aka. don't flirt with sin.

Julia Archer Strong 🏹💪🏻's avatar

Really succinct and precisely what I have seen in my walk with God — being a good Christian is about seeing the difference of the long run between what gives energy (God) & what drains energy (devil). Before this I was lukewarm. Building a community of women doing the same! 🙌🏻

Simple Man's avatar

Thanks for reading!! Glad you liked the article

Tor's avatar

Juan, I like the idea of getting angry and treating Satan like the enemy that he is. I will start doing this. Its too easy to write Satan off as an entity that is far removed from our lives instead of the very real and very present threat that he is.

Simple Man's avatar

Exactly right brother. Glad you found it useful, God bless you!

Dan's avatar

Very well written and timely post for me as excessive work stress can lead me to sin.

Simple Man's avatar

Glad the article helped you brother. Yeah man, stress can really wreak havoc. Try to have at least a few minutes of contemplation and prayer every day. This has helped me a lot in managing work-related stress.

What Would Charlie Do's avatar

The framing and externalising of the sin into Satan I think is one of the most potent tools available to Christians, that is otherwise simply absent to atheists.

When you can diagnose the issue concretely, you can respond with force. Without it, you're walking around in the dark, without a clear target for your efforts, and second guessing yourself every moment you try to endure the difficulty.

Simple Man's avatar

100% brother. Without a clear enemy to fight against, you're way more vulnerable to his schemes. By knowing that there's actually an enemy who wants to mislead us, we can focus our efforts and strengths into fighting him.

Steven Berger's avatar

It is written - Smack the camel's nose when he pokes it into the flap of your tent before you have the whole camel in the tent with you.

Simple Man's avatar

Lol, perfectly said.

Joel's avatar

Get Angry 🙏🙏🙏

Simple Man's avatar

Having an enemy to fight against really does help.

Boondocks's avatar

Thank you for the reminder.✝️

Simple Man's avatar

My pleasure, brother. Glad the article was helpful!

Seeking Heaven's avatar

That quote from Fr. Stephen de Young is beautiful! Great article brother.

Simple Man's avatar

It really helped me understand just how terrible sin really is. Thank you for reading brother, God bless!

Seeking Heaven's avatar

Our team is launching a new article based on the exact same concept very soon, stay tuned!

Neil Barnes's avatar

Stop resisting Christ's love. Fully surrender to Grace and sin will fade. Satan can't approach the light.

Die to yourself to live for Christ. 🙏🏻

fingolfin's avatar

1) I struggle with lust, and I've found that taking away the temptation by using scheduled app/website blockers really helps (when I am humble enough to use them). With these, you can start a blocking session (block the whole internet if you want) for some amount of time when the temptation is fresh enough that you have some resolve to do so.

2) Another trap of the enemy that I've noticed is the following: We rightly think that God lets us face temptations to humble us and draw us closer. Be that as it may, we must not let that underestimate the gravity of our condition, and that every time we give in, we must face the fact that we have agency too and we CHOSE to give in and betray the Lord.

3) The Lord promises us forgiveness if we repent. We must not use that as an excuse to sin. As obvious as this sounds, the enemy is a manipulative bastard, so beware.