Avoiding Sin

I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

Psalm 119:11

How, as Christians are we able to avoid sin in our lives? Most of us have read, heard, and even memorized Psalm 119:11. But do you know what the two preceding verses tell us? In verses 9 and 10 we read, How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! God gives us the tools to avoid sin in our lives. We see four ways in this short passage of scripture that tell us how to avoid sin.

First, we must guard our hearts against sin by knowing His word, the Bible. The Bible is our source for all truth. Paul writing to Timothy wrote, All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).

Secondly, we need to seek God with our whole heart. How do we seek after God? In order to live a victories life we need to do more than listing to a sermon now and then. We seek after Him through our worship, fellowship, service, and prayer.

Thirdly, we stay faithful to the commandments of God. When I say commandments of God I don’t just mean the Ten Commandments. It includes the command of Christ in the New Testament. We know because we are men and women born in sin that it is impossible for us to live a life without sin (1 John 1:8-10). However, that does not give us an excuse to keep on sinning (Romans 6:1-2). We must confess our sin and strive, with the Holy Spirits help to avoid sin and hate it as God hates it.

Finally, we must store the word of God in our hearts. Memorizing scripture is an important tool for every believer. Jesus Himself used scripture to combat temptation. How much more should we be memorizing scripture in order to resist temptation? In reference to memorization John Piper writes, “Paul said that we must “by the Spirit . . . put to death the [sinful] deeds of the body” (Romans 8:13). The one piece of armor used to kill is the “sword of the Spirit” which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17). As sin lures the body into sinful action, we call to mind a Christ-revealing word of Scripture and slay the temptation with the superior worth and beauty of Christ over what sin offers.” 

God called us out of bondage from sin and death in which we were slaves to sin to a life of joy and peace because we are now slaves to righteousness. I encourage you to store up the Word of God in your heart so you might not sin against Him.

Your shepherd,

Pastor Mark