WEDNESDAY May 6, 2026
Resistance Training
You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.
Hebrews 12:4
When presented with the temptation to sin, do you resist, or do you give in? Serious resistance training is necessary in your fight against sin. How many of us frequent the gym? We lift weights to build muscle strength, but we need to build spiritual strength. James 4:7 tells us how to do it: Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Your resistance training is twofold: Submission to God and resisting the devil. When tempted to sin, submitting to God means obeying what is written in His Word. For instance, what does 1 Corinthians 6:18 tell you about resisting fornication or adultery? Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
Keep yourself away from sin! It will cause you so much misery. Sin will disqualify a person in ministry. Families have been destroyed because of adultery. Think about young women who have become single mothers, because they yielded to temptation and had sex with their boyfriends. God never intended for them to raise a child on their own. Worse, heartless men tell their girlfriends to get an abortion, because they do not want to take any responsibility for their child. Stay away from sin! Live a life of holiness. God wants to bless your life, but sin will hold back His blessings.
As God, Jesus was sinless. Yet prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane strengthened Him before He went to the Cross. He agonized in prayer, and His sweat was like drops of blood. Weak in His humanity, He prayed to His Father to be able to endure the tremendous suffering ahead of Him.
The same kind of prayer is needed when striving against sin. Sin is deadly; it will destroy your life. Have you agonized in prayer in the fight against it, or do you just cave in to temptation? Maintain your Christian life. Strengthen yourself by being in God’s Word and prayer. Then, when temptation comes, you will be able to resist it.
Learn to take sin seriously – be on guard against it and resist its tug, fight its power. But most of all learn to take the Holy Spirit seriously, calling on Him to help you overcome sin’s power and live a holy and godly life.
~Billy Graham~
For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!
