13When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
16Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. 17Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
~James 1:13-18
Last night at small group we were led into a great discussion of the reality of cyclical or repeated sin. If honest, most of us struggle or have struggled with an area of our lives that has been a source of angst time after time. When contemplating the passage above, I must constantly realize that the main reason I continue to struggle is my own evil desire. If there is an area of my life that is not honoring to God, it is too easy for me to simply repent again and again.
The Word tells me that my sin is coming from within me. This seems obvious, but when I am in that moment of truth, feeling the pull to go off in a destructive direction and I easily rationalize my fears away, I have started too late.
Beating big, repeating sin is not just about giving the obvious thorn in our flesh to Christ. For me it has been continually searching out the small, seemingly insignificant slips that ultimately give Satan an opportunity to tempt me with my obvious weaknesses.
May we continually be on a hunt for those little areas to give away to God.
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