The New year is upon us, and I’m sure many of us have made the usual new year resolutions to accomplish this or that… among the body of Christ, there is one reoccurring resolution that I hear most often, and that is a resolution against old sinful habits.

In truth, I understand their heart… the LORD knows that I have been there, and it is a terribly frustrating time when one is struggling with such things… however those that have come to me and asked how to get out of it are often surprised by the answer I gave them…

That answer is in-essence don’t try.

Now please don’t misunderstand me… it is very important for us to stop our sin, and our lives will be a whole lot easier when we reach that goal – and it can and should  be reached, but not the way that most people try to go about it… stopping sin is not a matter of human-strength or effort, but belief on  Christ as
stated in 1^st John 3:9.

The key point here is that we need to shift our mental focus off of our sins, and onto Christ Jesus.

The more that we are sin-conscious, then the more our sins will grow in us – whatever we focus on grows larger and more powerful… whatever we meditate on, does enlarge within us. This is why the advice in Philippians 4:8 is so vital in telling us what to focus our minds on, and it should be noted that there is nothing more pure, true and lovely than Jesus Himself.

Realize that the enemy, Satan, is a very crafty one, he knows that a long as we remain focused on our sins (even for a good cause like trying to stop them) and he than has the advantage… as long as we are consumed with the thoughts of our sin, than we are focused on the wrong thing, and he has a point of influence.

So you might be saying then, “Well, James, what is the answer then?” The answer, my dear friends, is to focus on Jesus… The more we enlarge Him in our minds and harts, the more the sin will fall away from our lives naturally. I hear some of you saying now, “Can it really be that simple?” Yes! That is the beauty of Jesus and the spell, He accomplished all the work, and His completed work gives us freedom from all of our sins!

“But James, can you back this up is scripture?”  You bet!
2^nd Corinthians 3:5-9:

“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.” 

The original law, the Ten Commandments, was written and engraved on stones as mentioned above. And it is called the “ministration of death”; why? Because those who are sin conscious, come under condemnation, but thank God Jesus came, to remove all of our sins, and pay the penalty in our place!

What did Jesus say to the adulteress woman in John 8:11?

“…Neither do I condemn thee:  go, and sin no more” 

Jesus gave her the ability to go and sin no more, through His great forgiveness and mercy, not through condemnation and knowledge of her faults. And this “sin” here is not what we think it is… this is not speaking of sinful habits and behaviors, but it is the noun form of the word. Jesus, through His gift of no condemnation, changed her position.

The more that we try to accomplish by our own strength, the weaker we shall realize ourselves to be, but the more we rest in the power, strength and might of the completed work of Jesus, the more victorious and prosperous we will be in every area of our lives.

God is not interested in our own self-effort, in-fact it is the first thing His blood cleansed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He is interested in us, accepting and resting in our regenerated life, through Him.