Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.--James 1:14-16
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
These are some of those most helpful, practical verses in Scripture. They helped me change the way I thought about sin and enabled me to sin less. I stopped letting myself be deceived by blaming my sin on God, some physical ailment, on someone else or Satan and saw that I was responsible for my sin. I saw that there was an enemy inside, my flesh, that I needed to deal with and control. For more on this go here: The Blame Game - James 1:13
James starts off by telling us every man is tempted. Temptation is common to all of us. We are drawn away by our own desires and enticed. Let's break that down a little bit. What draws us away from the perfect will of God: Our own lusts...our own desires....what WE want as opposed to what God wants. The third reason God is not the source of our sin is the nature of lust. Lust comes from within our fallen nature.
James uses the hunting and fishing terms dragged and enticed in verse 14. (feeling flattered??) The first speaks of an animal being lured into a trap and the second of a baited hook. The bait covers the sorrow, pain and death that lies underneath. The reason animals are baited is to deceive them into being drawn into the trap. Instead of experiencing pleasure when they take the bait, they face capture and death. The same thing happens to us girls. Maybe it is a little more subtle, but we face the same kind of temptations. The baited hooks come in all different shapes and sizes and some are more appealing to us than others because our lusts are our own...they are individual to us. Nevertheless, we are baited, hooked and trapped by them in a deadly way.
James drops the hunting and fishing analogies in verse 15 to talk about babies. Quite a switch. He says then when lusts has conceived it brings forth a child and the child when it is full grown brings forth death. Uh oh. Do you see that sin is not a solitary act like some of us might like to think. The bible tells us it is a process. Girls, I cannot begin to tell you how helpful this is to know if you want to gain control of the enemy within. Here is how it starts...It starts with desire which plays with our emotions. So we see something and we get that feeling that we want it. We begin to feel that it will satisfy us. We begin to long for it. Sin begins with desire. It goes to the mind next.
The second "d" is deception. This is when you start to reason with yourself why you need whatever it is you desire. You justify it in your mind. You begin to think you have a right to it. It starts with desire in the emotion and then to deception in the mind as you try to rationalize your desire.
The next thing that happens is sin is conceived in your will. John MacArthur calls this "design". Sin is conceived at the moment we convince our minds that we have every right to have whatever it is we want. Once the mind is convinced...then it conceives of the sin itself. Plans it, so to speak.
The last "d" stands for disobedience. The actual sin is committed and this, of course, occurs in the behavior. Sin begins with desire in the emotions. The emotions lead the mind to justify or rationalize the sin. Once the mind is convinced, the sin is conceived in the will and acted upon in the behavior.
The last part of verse 15 says that when the child (sin) is full grown it brings forth death...literally it is a killer! You are being deceived if you think you are getting away with any sin and not experiencing consequences. Sin always results in death of some kind. Death in relationships, death of relationships, death of opportunity for blessing...and on and on. Look carefully at those things in your life that are not in accordance with His will...even those you think might be harmless...follow the logical progression and you will find the end of it is death.
So why did I say these verses are so practical? They are practical because, as I said before, they tell us that sin is a process...it is not something that just happens out of the blue. We can stop it before the sin is conceived at the emotional level or in the mind...if it reaches the will..it is too late. How? By being careful what we expose our emotions and our minds too. A fool's mind is an open door...not discerning...allowing anything through. It is also important to understand that emotions bypass our intellect. When we feel an emotional rush coming...stop and THINK! Both our emotions and our minds need to be guarded by the word of God. Our emotions need to find a willing mate in our mind for sin to be conceived.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.--2nd Corinthians 10:4-5
How do we do this practically...the answer you will get from me is always the same. Immerse yourself in the word. Bring your mind and emotions under the control of the Spirit of God by saturating yourself in the word of God. You will then have a mind renewed and transformed by His word. A mind set on things above not on earthly things. Are you getting the picture? Surrender to the Spirit of God and want what God wants in your life. Let Him be your all in all. Abide in His word...dwell there.
Secondly, stop blaming God or anyone else for your sin. Verse 16 says it all: DO NOT BE DECEIVED MY BELOVED BRETHREN (MY DAUGHTERS.) You have NO ONE to blame but yourself. Stop walking around blindly...the enemy is you. Start looking within when you sin. What is your heart set on that you are willing to sin to get it. Ask yourself what is it that you wanted that you were not getting that caused you to be impatient, unkind or unforgiving to those the Lord has placed in your life. As you do this it will become clear to you that it is your own lusts that get you into trouble.
Having done this repent of any wrong desires and ask God to give you the right desires (His desires) and by faith make the decision to move in the direction where Christ is leading you. Do it whether you feel like it or not, asking and counting on Him to align your will with His. Little by little you will see the fruit.
This process is the key to victory over sin. It is a moment by moment dying to self and living for Christ. Putting off the old man and putting on the new. Remember you are part of God's plan. You have works that He has prepared beforehand that you should walk in them. You can't fulfill his perfect plan for you unless you are living for Him and dying to your wants and desires. You can't do that without surrendering moment by moment to God's Spirit and allowing Him to live through you. As a believer God promises to work all things together for you for good, but imagine what he can do with someone who is fully submitted to Him and His desires. Imitate Christ who fully submitted Himself to His Father making our redemption possible. Put all your energies and efforts into living for Christ.
LoveMom
