i am a christian struggling with sin. i need an honest answer. why shouldn't i just kill myself? isn't that preferable to living in sins you can't defeat? i'd rather die and go to heaven than sin against my lord repeatedly day after day. i could lose my chance to repent if i stay alive.
Hello Carter, I'm very sorry to hear about your struggles with sin, but committing suicide isn't the answer (quite frankly, if you are worried about losing your chance to repent, it seems to me that suicide is the very last thing that you'd want to do
).
Praying for you!
The thing is, the Lord knows that sin cannot be fully defeated by us in this life, so He gave us confession and repentance as a means of dealing with it and reestablishing full fellowship with Him in the here and now. He also promises to both forgive us of all of the sins that we commit, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness as well, whenever we confess our sins to Him .. e.g.
1 John 1:9 
So, stay in God's word and pray for His help with your struggle against sin. He is truly on our side in this fight as He always provides a way of escape from the temptations that we face .. e.g.
1 Corinthians 10:13.
As for waging war against sin where
the rubber meets the road (so to speak), follow the command that you fine here (
2 Corinthians 10:5) and
REFUSE to accept your sinful thoughts by taking them "
captive" as soon as you perceive them entering your mind, so that the temptations that you face every day are never allowed the chance to turn into sins instead. IOW, just say "
NO"
to drugs to your sinful thoughts
(out loud, if that helps .. it did for me, especially when I used to face waves of those unwanted, sinful thoughts that seemed like they would never stop
).
Lastly (concerning your 'rubber meeting the road' battle with sin), if what you are seeing is part of what is causing you to sin, learn to look away from (instead of at) the problem, whatever it may be, and whenever it is possible to do so. I'll let it go at that, but if this is an area that you are struggling with, let me know if you'd like to discuss it further (as I have a number of other suggestions that can help).
You may also want to begin to practice the presence or awareness of God in your life, because the more of Him that you have in your life, the less you are going to want to sin, or be able to sin
The way to do so is summed up pretty nicely for us in the following short passage (some of this may seem all but impossible to you at first, but no worries, just take it slow, perhaps by beginning to look for things throughout your day, even the smallest or simplest of things, to rejoice in and to thank Him for.
1 Thessalonians 5
16 Rejoice always;
17 pray without ceasing;
18 in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
This all means that your Creator, the King of the Universe Himself, wants you to make Him part of your life, the BIGGEST part, actually
What could possibly be as COOL/WONDERFUL/WONDROUS as that
Remember too that God is our loving, heavenly Abba/Father, and He sees us and deals with us, first and foremost, as His children. This means that He is far less interested in getting perfection from us than He is in seeing the relationship that we have with Him grow (I believe that you will find that the more you come to know Him and include Him your life, the less you will tend towards sin
).
It helps me to think of Him as a parent (the perfect parent, in fact). And since we are part of His family now, our value to Him is found not so much in what we do or fail to do for Him, but in who we are to Him, His children by adoption. IOW, He sees us/values us as "human beings", NOT as "human doings", just like our earthly parents do (or are at least supposed to do, anyway
).
There's more that I'd like to talk with you about, but I need to go right now. Talk to you soon (Dv)
I'll leave you with this passage. It's one of my favorite little passages about sin, as it not only tells us what we need to do to overcome the sin in our lives (v9), it also tells us one of the best ways to go about doing so too (v11) .. the way that was certainly the key/principal way that worked for me!
Psalm 119
9 How can a young man keep His way pure? By keeping it according to Thy word.
11 Thy word I have treasured (stored/hidden) in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee.
Questions? Please don't hesitate to ask them!
God bless you!!
--David
p.s. - if may behoove you to consider carefully what Spurgeon has to say in the quote of his below
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21
