Overcoming Sin With the Right Solution

"But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16).

You may have heard the story about the man who loved to have hamsters and snakes as pets. He was a hardworking man, and one day he went to his local pet store one day and bought a well-trained hamster and a well-trained snake. They were so well trained that he decided to let them run free throughout the house as he carried out his daily tasks. One night he came home to find the hamster missing, but the snake very content and relaxed. He thought the hamster escaped through a hole in the door, so he patched it up, went to the pet store the next day and bought another hamster. He lets them run free again, comes home the next night and the hamster was gone once again! But the snake was doing just fine. He thought the hamster might have fell through a hole in the floor, so he patches the hole. Day after day he purchases another hamster at the pet store, thinking that they’re all disappearing because of holes in his house. He was trying to solve the problem of his hamsters going missing with all the wrong solutions—there was only one solution to his problem, to get rid of the snake that was turning his hamsters into snacks!

And with some problems, there's only one solution. So it is with our problem of struggling with temptations to sin. We battle our flesh each day, and according to Paul in Galatians, there's only one solution we are promised will work - walking by the Spirit. We must take each step in the walk of life guided, guarded, and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Often times we try to solve the problem of sin in our lives with the wrong solutions—trying harder, committing ourselves, saying to ourselves, “Never again will I sin in this way.” But the only sure solution to overcoming sin is by walking by the Spirit of God. The flesh cannot be tamed, it cannot be reformed, it cannot be trained, and it cannot be improved—but it can be overcome by walking by the Spirit. I wonder if you’re walking by the Spirit today?

If you don’t walk by the Spirit, Paul says of you in Romans 8:7-8, “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Seeking Christ,
Bro. Brandon G. B.

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Bro. Brandon is the Associate Pastor of Youth and
Children at Ohio Valley Baptist Church. His sermons,
podcasts, book reviews, and other free ministry
resources can be found on Brandon's Desk