How do you rid yourself of temptation?

Willis Gravning said:

Something that helped me was being more alert to the 'near occasion of sin'. It means to be alert for my thoughts starting to go down the wrong path and reverse course early.

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~Anastasia~ said:

Hello, Gregory Mallett! I just wanted to take this opportunity to welcome you to CF! I hope that you are blessed by being here.

Some good points too - if one is in a weak state against a particular temptation, it is a good idea not to place ourselves in a position to fail. But above all, yes, the presence of God. Except wait ... I think I actually misunderstood you there. I was thinking for a moment you meant that keeping an awareness of God and a connection to Him is a good antidote. Which it is, in fact, and partly for the reason you mention. But you mention something that folks seem to seldom take into account - realizing that God sees every sin. It's easier to sin if we push Him out of our awareness and at least don't have the SENSE that He is watching, but of course He sees all, so never can we do anything in secret from Him.

Anyway - welcome to CF! We're glad that you've joined us. And if you have any questions or need help navigating the forums, please don't hesitate to ask. [/QUOTE

I understand about the adversary, but because one is conceived in sin one makes their own decision if they want to be indulge in sin. One needs to take full responsibility and face the consequence for what they did and stop blaming to relieve themselves from taking full responsibility.

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Sundown said:

I understand about the adversary, but because one is conceived in sin one makes their own decision if they want to be indulge in sin. One needs to take full responsibility and face the consequence for what they did and stop blaming to relieve themselves from taking full responsibility.

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~Anastasia~ said:

Absolutely. Please forgive me if I somehow gave any impression to the contrary. We certainly must take responsibility for our own sins.

I only meant (by what I said in the post you quoted) that it is wise to be aware of our weaknesses and not essentially see how close we can walk on the edge of the cliff and not fall off. It is foolish to expose ourselves to situations that tempt us.

That doesn't even really need the adversary to put any effort at all into tempting us. That's just us being foolish. And we shouldn't do it.

However, while I do certainly agree that we must take responsibility for our own sins, it is also wise to know the tactics employed by the enemy, and be on guard against them. To be unaware is to be unarmed, and there us no need or excuse for us to be so.

We ought to do all we know how to do, at all times, to best follow Christ and be formed into His likeness.

But I certainly didn't mean by saying those things that we can excuse our own sins. Not by any means.

God be with you!

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Sundown said:

I know you did not mean it to come out that way and I knew what you was actually saying, but sometimes it is good to respond the way I did to bring to attention that we need to be careful in giving the impression that one should not be fully blamed. So, there is not need to forgive, you did nothing wrong. We just need to make it clear to others that one need to stop blaming others when they are putting themselves in a position to indulge in sin. We need to encourage to guard our hearts which is vulnerable.

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