Hold On To The Promises Of God And Slay The Roots Of Sin

In his book, “Battling Unbelief”, John Piper wrote these words that penetrated so deep in my heart:

“We sin because we believe the deceitful promises that sin makes. The Bible warns us “that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3:13) The Promises of sin are lies. Battling unbelief and fighting for faith in future grace means that we fight fire with fire. We throw against the promises of sin the promises of God”

I love that, “We throw against the promises of sin the promises of God.” The Word of God tells us believers that we are in a war. And it’s not just a war against men “but it’s a war against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12 NLT) But the Word of God also says that "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.” (2 Corinthians NKJV)

So, if you’re going through an attack of the enemy, don’t be discouraged, our Father is with you. God has literally given every believer everything we need to persevere. We have the whole Trinity on our side, and we have His Word. But a lot of the time we live in failure and captivity instead of freedom and victory. Why? We must observe where our feet are placed.

Every battle starts in the mind. Especially a spiritual battle. When satan comes to discourage or start fights amongst Christians or in our homes etc. it starts in the mind: “do you really believe God loves you after all the bad things you’ve done?” “are you really going to let your spouse talk to you like that without getting even?” “you will never be able to get out of this one.” And the list of lies goes on.

What must we do? We must fight. How? Holding on to the promises of God. We live in defeat because we don’t know God like we ought nor do we meditate in the scriptures as we ought. But who does? True, no one does these things perfectly, but we ought to grow in doing them. A Christian cannot live with out the Word. That’s why Christ says: “People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Mathew 4:4)

And to strike the point of our problem, we ought to look for specific promises. Like for example: if your struggling with anxiety, meditate, (if can memorize) promises that can help you during these moments:

“I am your God I will strengthen you; I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10)

So right here, the Lord gives us assurance that He is our God who will personally strengthen us. That He is our God that will personally help us and uphold us. He won’t send some angles to do it, no He personally commits himself to help us with his own righteous right hand.

So, if your discouraged, alone, anxious and more, the Lord gives you the promise that: He will strengthen you, help you and uphold you with his own righteous right hand. God, Creator, The Father of Jesus, our Heavenly Father, The Righteous one, is for you!

Sin has power over us when we make the choice of putting our faith in its lies rather than putting it in God and His truth. If we are afraid and anxious about having enough for tomorrow, it is rooted in disbelief that God will supply as He has promised. We believe the lies of satan that say we won’t have enough. We might even stop being generous or lie in our tax informs; or get a job that involves a lot of time away from God and our family We end up neglecting what’s more important before God. Again, because we don’t believe in His promises.

I’m currently reading the book, “Battling unbelief” by John Piper, and I really recommend it. He tackles specific sins that are rooted in unbelief. Below is his explanation on how we must cut the sinful deeds by the Spirit:

“we kill sinful deed before they happen by cutting the root of their life: the lies of sin. Doing this “by the Spirit” means that we must trust in the power of the Spirit and then wield (use a weapon or tool) the “Sword of the Spirit” which is the Word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17) The “word of God” is at its core the gospel, and then all that God has spoken in his revealed word. The gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection is not only the core but the foundation of all the promises of God. That is the point of the logic of Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? “All things” that we need- the fulfillment of all God’s promises- are guaranteed by the Father’s not sparing his Son. Or to put it positively, all the promises of God are secured for us because God sent his Son to live and die to cancel our sins and become our righteousness. So when I say that we wield the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit, what I mean is that we hold fast to this Christ-centered gospel truth with all its promises, and bank on them, in every situation, we sever (divide by cutting or slicing, especially suddenly and forcibly) the lifeline of sin by the power of a superior promise.” (definitions added)

So there’s hope! Don’t give up! Don’t give in to lies that sin tells you. We have assurance in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. All has been boughten for you. “O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” (Psalm 34:8 NASB)

Peter invites us to humble ourselves before God by casting all our anxieties on Him. And what is the promise we see here?

1 Peter 5:6-7 (NASB) Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God…casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

The promise to those who humble themselves before God by casting all their anxieties on Him is that: God will care for them

We have to choose where do we want to stand. We can’t live in both worlds. And we know the truth is found in God not in satan nor sin. I love the pledge of allegiance that is taught to the kids (usually in VBS) but it’s for all ages:

“I pledge allegiance to the Bible, God’s Holy Word; I will make it a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I will hide its words in my heart, that I might not sin against God.”

So, what this pledge is saying is that no matter what, we will choose to follow the Lord’s Word. Even if our feelings aren’t in accordance or if satan comes with his false pleasures. We will choose the Word of God because that is where truth is. And only threw a divine knowledge of God’s Word (given by the Holy Spirit) will I gain wisdom to be able to stand with God, obeying Him in everything.

I am resolved and invite you to join me to pick a book of the Bible, any that God leads you to read, and stop to see what promises God has for you there. Pray that God make them so real to you that when satan comes with his lies you will choose to stand on those promises.

And don’t worry about trying to start big. Start little by little, maybe a chapter a day? Or if you have ceased to pray for any reason (we all go through that) start praying again, even 5 min a day. When I’ve gone threw dry moments in my life, I always want to go back in strong and pray for like 2 hours. All that happens is I get discouraged. Start little by little. One chapter a day or verse by verse. Get a notebook or just mark on your Bible. If you can, try memorizing specific Bible verses. If you can’t, its ok! I get you, I’m bad at memorizing myself. Maybe you can write specific verses next to a visible place or like I mentioned a small journal. That is what I do, I carry a skinny journal with me and read the promises I have found there. Whatever can help.

The Lord loves you. You can trust him.

And to end this article I want to put a part of the Hymn “Standing on The Promises Of God”:

"Standing on the promises, I cannot fall Listening every moment to the Spirit's call Resting in my Savior as my all in all Standing on the promises of God

Standing, standing Standing on the promises of Christ my Savior Standing, standing I'm standing on the promises of God"