What's Your Downfall? - Resisting Temptation & Sin

Show Notes:
I recently read a definition for repentance: “a change of mind; a turning from sin, accompanied by a turning to God”

Matthew 18:3, “The he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.”

The point of repenting is to admit to something you know you shouldn’t have done or been involved in, ask God for forgiveness & return back to Him. But we sometimes forget about the ‘return to Him’ part & just take His forgiveness for granted & believe it will all be fine because we repented.

There needs to be GENUINE repentance & humbling from us for it to mean something. 

2 Chronicles 7:14, “Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.”

But it can feel difficult to get from under sinful behavior because our heart for God is fighting the desire to be like the world & fit in with all their foolishness. 

1 John 2:15-16, “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.”

 Here are my 4 tips on how to resist temptation less: 

1. Pray About Everything
   1. There is nothing too small you could pray about. And if you pray about EVERYTHING, you will pray about this thing you are tempted to do & probably end up not doing it.
   2. James 1:5, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.”
2. Read the Bible Daily
   1. Spend time in His word. Really read it & study it to truly understand the context, the nuances & the specific message being given.
   2. Psalm 119:11, “I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
3. Don’t Compromise Yourself
   1. If you’re in the vicinity of where temptation and sin are about to go down, you gotta leave.
   2. 1 Corinthians 10:13, “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.”
4. Ask Yourself, “Is this Christ-like behavior?”
   1. Honestly ask yourself if what you are about to do is something Jesus would participate in. And allow the Holy Spirit, which you receive when accepting Jesus into your heart, to guide you in what you do.
   2. Galatians 5:16, “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.”
   3. Romans 12:2, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Transcript

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This is the A Real Positive Girl podcast and I am your host Sabrina, and I am here chatting with you as always about your emotions, your mental health struggles and how to take those first few steps towards being more honest, more vulnerable, and become more self-aware. And we do that too times a week around here. So if you are new, welcome in. I really hope that this episode and any other episodes you decide to listen to, uh, that have already happened, like in the archive, are really helpful for you and give you some things to consider and ponder about whether they need to change or shift or things you need to learn more about yourself. Those are definitely a lot of things that I want to push people to do. So again, they can achieve being more honest and vulnerable and gaining more self-awareness. So if you're new, again, welcome in. If you're not new, welcome back to the party. You know how this works. I hope that has been helpful and fun for you too. Today we're gonna talk about what is your downfall, resisting temptation. But before we jump into that, as always, I just wanna invite you to come say hi to me on social media. I am at Sabrina Joy Perso on both TikTok and Instagram. So please come by, say hi, let's become friends and let's just talk about anything that's important to you. Or maybe you just need a place to share something with someone, um, that might be kind of emotional for you or intimate or things that you wanna change. Maybe you need some feedback on that. Maybe you just wanna tell me your favorite kind of ice cream, whatever it is, I am there for you. Send me a message, let's become friends. Also, if you check in the show notes below, you'll see like where to find me on socials and how to spell my name, my username. Also the YouTube channel for the podcast with some video episodes for a lot of the episodes that have happened this year so far. Again, those are slowly being uploaded. So I would say check on that regularly and uh, you will be able to find some fun videos of me move my hands, all kinds of crazy like facial expressions. Maybe it's more entertaining for you to take in the podcast that way. So check that out. And then the other things that are down there are talking about like the journal that I created and maybe you want to visit me on Twitter, um, all kinds of things. So just check it all out when you have a moment. But I do wanna get to our topic for today, which again is what is your downfall resisting temptation? So as I've shared many times and a lot lately, uh, because I was such a people pleaser growing up, I definitely let myself fall into sin often. And you know, when we're talking about sin, we're talking about things that we shouldn't do that wants us to do in his will and his way, and actually being people that are Christians and have do what is good in his eyes and not follow the sin that's happening in the world around us all the time. And so, but growing up for me being a people pleaser, you just wanna make people happy. You wanna do what you can to. Stay in the good graces of people. And so I definitely allowed myself to fall into so much sin, so many sinful experiences that I would say and I wanted to like keep up with the crowd and not stand out too much, but just enough for people to actually know who I am and like me, but not too much that people would be like, who are you and what are you all about? Like I always called and referred to myself like especially now, probably not as much then, but especially now. I was very much playing Switzerland, you know, I was just very neutral friends with everyone. So I didn't wanna stand out too much for fear of like judgment or what people would say or do. And I just wanted to enjoy my life in that time as much as I could without having to add more challenges to my plate. Cuz I was already dealing with so much trauma and pain at home that I didn't want to take on the extra responsibility of, you know, doing everything right in God's eyes, which sounds terrible, but I'm here to be honest and transparent with you and that's how it was for me and I just couldn't come up from under like all the people pleasing and things that I was getting involved in. And you know, when you think about it though, being a Christian actually can be a challenge, a good one that a lot of us should decide to take up and really lean into in our lives. But it can be a challenge. You can face a little bit more pushback from people because we live in a society where people need other people to agree with them and have the same beliefs with them, for them to even like want to chat you up, have a conversation, interact with you at all. And if you're listening internationally and you feel like the society where you live isn't necessarily as domineering as us as ours over here in the United States, that's great. I'm happy for you, like genuinely because if you live in a place where people don't want to force and guilt you into and shame you into having their same beliefs, to actually be able to even just minimally have a conversation with you<laugh>, um, that's fantastic cuz it's like that here a lot in the US Everyone thinks they're right, everyone thinks they have the right perspective and widen their perspective, to see things from other people's point of views while still believing and honoring what they believe, but then realizing that it's okay for other people to have different views. It's a whole thing. But anyway, so you know, it can be diff difficult being a Christian in that way because people are so, uh, ridiculous in wanting you to only see things from their way. And if you see it from a different way immediately you're the enemy, which really sucks. And upholding the image of Christ can feel very isolating at times, which can also be a challenge because you just aren't mimicking what the world's doing and what it's all about. And um, just necessarily being like everyone else. And when you're not being like everyone else, you stand out kind of in a negative way. Uh, but that is how we're supposed to be when we're acting, when we're being like Christ, like we're supposed to shine the light of God to other people. And so if we're just trying to be like everyone else, we're just hiding in the crowd and no one will actually be able to see the light of Christ, you know what I mean? And so, um, it's just you live a wildly different life than other people when you're a Christian, when you're actually actively, um, shining your light for Christ. And, and that can feel a little challenging. And I think that growing up I just wasn't really fully up to the challenge. There are definitely times here or there where I was very zealous in wanting to share God, but I think it was just, um, how would I say, like a reaction towards what I was going through and the true like zealous heart and love and desire to seek God and and know him and share him with everyone didn't really come tell later. So, you know, I think by trying to be accepted, I allowed more trouble into my life. I I, that has to be it for sure. Uh, meaning that there was more experiences like giving into sin and trying to take the easy way out. And it wasn't until I fully committed my life and my heart and everything to God that any of this got a lot easier to deal with the sin and temptation that kind of like cor I felt like corrupt into my life. And you know, thinking about this, uh, episode that we are, listen that, that you're here for right now, I actually had a different topic in mind, but when I started writing the notes, it came into this topic that I decided to title, like talking about your downfall. And it's just so interesting that when I have like thinking I'm going into one topic and I even felt like the other topic was very much like God leading me to do that. And then, and then it just immediately got shifted to what we're talking about today, which is really dealing with like ask like really figuring out like what your downfall is and like, you know, that's really a question you're gonna ask for yourself and we're really just talking about like dealing with the, uh, the temptations and resisting sin. But I always find it so interesting too that when God is just like, no, we need to really talk about this, it must be important for someone. And I truly believe that even if it's just important for one person, then it's worth taking the time to create an episode and have corresponding scriptures and everything, um, and advice to go with that because that one person, God wants that one person to come back to the flock. You know, that one sheep that's just kind of lost in the way. And if I'm able to help with that, I am so happy for it. And so it's just, I just find it so interesting that even though I felt like the other topic was from God, this one was like, nope, this one needs to come first. And I think that's the importance of highlighting, being flexible with God's will and what he wants us to do and just going with the flow because it's just the best way to be with God. Um, so again, in researching and thinking about this episode, I recently had read like a definition of what repentance is, and this is what it said. It said a change of mind, a turning from sin accompanied by a turning to God. So you cha a change of mind, you're just like, oh actually I shouldn't be involved in this or shouldn't be doing this or I shouldn't have done that. And then you turn from the sin from the thing, the temptation, whatever it is away from it and then while also turning towards God. So instead of like, you know, maybe just turning away from it and then going a one way, you're actually like turning all the way around so that you can go back to God. You can like go back to focusing on him and having him be the primary thing that you were focused on in your life. Even in the book of Matthew in chapter 18 verse three, it says, then he said, I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven. And those are words from Jesus. Like he's telling you that. He's like, I'm telling you the truth. Listen bro,<laugh>, uh, you gotta turn away from your sins and you know, if you don't, you won't get into the kingdom of heaven. And that's really important because this all might seem very simple to you. You're like, yes, I know what it means to repent or have repentance, but I just feel like there that we kind of like miss some spots, you know, in truly like their true depth of what it is. The point of repenting is to admit to something you know, that you shouldn't have done or been involved in. Um, or you allowed people to, to lead you astray to something you knew was kind of like shifty and you, and it was sus like it was suspect, but you're like, I'll still go along with it, you know? And then so you admit and acknowledge that that was not good <laugh>. And then you ask God for forgiveness in the matter and then you return back to him having learned from the previous experience like what you shouldn't do and like what needs to change and all of these things. And this all seems very simple, right? You're acknowledging you're asking for forgiveness and you're turning back to him. Great, it sounds like an easy formula, but I feel like we sometimes forget about the return to him part, the return to God part and just take the forgiveness that we ask of God and go in our own direction. So again, instead of like we're, you know, sin and then we like turn away from sin and then we turn towards God. So it feels like it would, it would need to be a 180 turn, but often we just do a 90 degree where we're like, we will turn away from the sin and then we'll be on our way. And it's like God's like, wait, hold on, you still gotta keep turning. I am over here. God's like, hey, I'm over here. Did you forget that you needed to turn back to me? And I think a lot of people do, you know, uh, we just, we just forget about the return to him part and just take the forgiveness and just go in our own direction and instead of recommitting ourselves to God, we are just taking his forgiveness for granted, which is so awful. And I am not saying that I haven't done any of this. I've definitely done all of this, but it's still awful. Like we need to, when we take his forgiveness for granted and believing that it'll all be fine because we repented, you're not doing the full thing that's being asked of you, which is to repent and turn back to him. Not just repent and like be on your way. Like there's like a two, it feels like a two or three parter thing and you're only doing the first part.<laugh>, you're only like, Hey, I did this bad thing, God, can you forgive me? Awesome. Like, wait, hold on. And then you need to come back to God and recommit and be like, okay, what should we do next? How can I be better? What needs to change? Let me like recommit to you and just like draw near to you and know you're better so that I have a better chance of not allowing myself to go astray again. Does that make sense? It just needs to go farther than it is, you know, we need to actually go back to him and draw closer. It definitely will help us to avoid like falling into sin the next time, uh, because we will be tempted by sin on the regular, but the stronger that our relationship is with Christ, the easier it will be for us to say no. That's like the biggest point here. And there are definitely gonna be times where we fall and we do say yes to sin and temptation because we are not perfect beings, but the stronger and closer we are to Christ, the easier it'll be for us to say no. And that should be the goal because we wanna shine a light for him. But even in the times we do fall into sin and temptation, his forgiveness and being able to help us out of that and our genuine like seeking of him and turning towards him and asking for forgiveness and, and wanting to, um, really cleanse our heart, the gen us being genuine in that can still be a light for Christ because you know, it's demonstrating his strength and ability to deliver still, uh, bless us despite the fact that we're going astray and being all cray. You know what I mean? So, you know, we just get drawn into sin so easily shiny things because a lot of the time it might not look like sin at first sometimes, you know, again, we get, we allow ourselves to be manipulated and kind of like shielded from like what's actually happening. Or we think that we can be in the presence of sin, right? We can be around someone doing something that's tempting and not get roped in, which is probably like one of the silliest things I've ever heard. I've actually like definitely been in that situation multiple times, but like in hindsight it's so silly. And you know, we sometimes think that we were doing all of this in our own strength, having to like, um, like say no and pull away from temptation and not allow ourselves to fall into sin. We think that we are the ones that are, you know, shouldering the burden of that. And that's not true either <laugh>. And so it's important to recognize that as well, that God is the one that's helping us work, like behind the scenes, holding us up, keeping us, uh, uh, giving us strength to, you know, be resilient and keep going and say no and not allow those things to draw us in and break us down really, right? So I do wanna make sure that I say it again and I already said it, but I wanna make sure that I say it again. There needs to be a genuine repentance and humbling from us for it to mean something, right? Because God knows when we're being fake, we can't fool him. And it's funny that we think that we can, because he already knows what we're gonna do. We're gonna say it's like when we are praying and talking to God, he already knows our heart and what's going on. It's really just demonstrating and building that trust and that relationship with him when we do pray to him, when we do speak to him, when we do ask him for things, when we do want to get closer to him. And so he knows if we're being genuine or not. So if you think that you're able to like get away with it because nothing bad, like immediately happens after you being fake, you're not. So you need to just have that genuine repentance and humbling from those experiences. Uh, in the book of Second Chronicles, which I know you're probably like, uh, old Testament still, despite the fact that like, you know, Christ hadn't died in the cross for all of us. Like the, one of the, the most amazing gift ever, even in the Old Testament, they were talking about this. So in second Chronicles chapter seven, verse 14, it says then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. And so you have to, God is just asking you to really humble yourselves and be genuine and to pray and to be like, listen, I did this thing. I should not have done it. God, please forgive me. And then turn away from the wicked thing and then go back to God and doing, aligning with his will and his way. I also think that a lot of times we will ask for forgiveness and we'll repent and be like, oh my gosh, I should not have gotten caught up in that. But we don't necessarily turn away from those wicked ways. We just think that now that we've asked for, for repentance and forgiveness, we won't be drawn into it. It, it would be like, you know, like rooming, like having a roommate and like the sin being the roommate and being like, okay, you know, I already got caught up in your craziness. I don't think I will now because I've asked for forgiveness. God will just shield me from that. But you also have to take action and, you know, uh, pull yourself away from that sin so you don't allow your weak flesh to get drawn in because yeah, God is gonna forgive you and he's gonna, if you ask for strength, he will give you strength to not allow it to break you down, but you still have to do your due diligence as well, right? To demonstrate that it's important to you to not get caught up in it again. It's important for you to actually align with God's will and do what he's asking you to do. And it's not just this like fake thing, you know what I mean? Okay. So yeah, I could just feel really difficult sometimes to get behavior because our heart for God is like fighting the desire that we have to be like the world and to like fit in with all of their foolishness that they're engaging in. But we have to make choices because we can't serve both God and the world. So in the book of First John chapter two, verses 15 through 16, it says, do not love this world nor the things it offers you for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the father in you for the world offers not only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see and pride in our achievement, in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the father, but are from this world. So we can't just be in love with the world and everything that it has to offer, but also in love with God and serving him and aligning with his will in his ways. There's just no way. There's no way we think we can, but we can't, we can't like just straddle the fence on that, it's not gonna work. So we need to understand that we have to make the choice to just serve God and do what he wants us to do because it's going to be the best choice ultimately. But we get so distracted by all these things that feel fun that we wanna do right now, but it's all temporary and the kingdom of heaven is eternal. And so we want eternal life with God forever. So we need to, you know, genuinely love him, seek relationship with him, get closer to him, serve him, and align with his will and his way. So let me share with you some tips that could help with resisting temptation and not allowing yourself to fall into sin. But first, the mini disclaimer. So the tips and advice that I'm about to share with you and that I've already shared with you so far are based on my own knowledge and research and the re and the experience of others in my own personal experience and anything that I am able to share with you that might be from someone else, um, if you find that anything I'm talking about just really doesn't align with what you think would be most helpful in helping you to, uh, figure out what your downfall is and resist temptation, I do encourage you to seek someone that you truly trust to talk to this talk to about this and how it would correlate with your Christian walk and your lifestyle. Uh, you could also talk to like a. Therapist or a counselor, I do that too every single week to figure out and like think through things and understand where, where my mind is and maybe why I am leaning into certain, uh, temptations that I shouldn't, right? And like what's, what's happening there? And then like lean into God to help me to pull away from those things. So I encourage you to do that, but if you don't wanna do that, you don't wanna talk to anyone about this. I do encourage you to go to our best friend Google and type in keywords like resisting sin or dealing with temptation and what you should do. And that should pull a lot of results of like podcasts and social media posts and blog posts and other videos and all kinds of things that will really help you, uh, with this topic for doing your own research. So again, today I do wanna share with you four tips on how I believe would be the best way for you to resist temptation and not give into it as much. If not, I'm not gonna say at all because we're not perfect beans and we make mistakes. And so we just need to continue to rely on God to help us become stronger and know that he is going to forgive us, but we have to have a genuine heart towards him in his will, in his way. Okay? So the first one is pray about everything. So there is nothing too small that you could pray about genuinely. A lot of times we spend all this time praying about these really big lofty goals and desires and how you want God to help you get this job or get this house or be able to be financially stable to do this, that and the other. But maybe you feel like there's some sort of temptation with you and you know that you're not, you shouldn't talk to this like one person at a place that you go to on the regular and you're like, I don't know what to do then just pray about it. Pray if you should go to that place today or if you should actually talk to that person and whether or not that would actually be beneficial to you. There is no prayer too small. You, you should pray about everything in your life and, and if you pray about everything, you pray about this one thing that you're being tempted on, and it'll probably end up like you'll probably end up not doing it and not giving in because you're consulting God and be like God, what should I do? Is this really the way to go? And even if God doesn't like directly speak words to you, the Holy Spirit will be there to guide you as well and be like, yeah, let's not do this. Or yeah, it'll be okay, or yeah, but only in this way for this timeframe, whatever. It's, so it's just like praying and really seeking that time and that genuine connection with God. And that will help you constantly align yourself with God and like talk to him and you know about like what you need and what you should do to accomplish, uh, aligning with his will and doing his ways. And you can also pray and ask him for strength in doing what is right and pulling away from temptation and not allowing, uh, sin in your life as much as possible. So pray about anything and everything. And it doesn't have to be only these very specific dedicated prayer times like in the morning after devotional time or anything like that. It can be any time of day, it should be multiple times a day because it should be like God is your best friend and you just talk to him all the time while you're washing dishes, while you're taking a shower, while you're brushing your teeth, while you are unloading the dishwasher, while you're picking up your kids, while you're sitting in traffic making dinner. Whatever it is. Uh, in the book of James chapter one verse five, it says, if you need wisdom, ask our generous God and he'll give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. So just ask God for the wisdom and the knowledge and the direction that you need to not, um, give into temptation and to resist sin and resist temptation and to be stronger in saying no so you don't get caught up in things that don't align with what God wants you to do and how you should live your life. The second one is read the Bible daily. Read the Bible daily. If you don't have a Bible, I encourage you to get one. I think that there is a way to probably get a free one if you wanted. If you go to church you could ask them, it's not something I've actually ever thought about. I just, it literally just like popped in my mind right now. I should look into that. If there's like a way that you could get a Bible for free, if that is something that you're seeking, um, then maybe send me a message on socials and I'll try to figure that out for you. However, if you have like regular internet access, you can look up bible scriptures and bible plans for free. So if you go to like bible.com and there's like, there's so many bible sites that really help with scriptures and scripture studies and all those kind of things and bible plans. If you wanna read a certain, like read the whole Bible. If you must wanna read uh, a book of the Bible or read about a certain topic and that align with that topic, you can do that. So whatever way you go about it or if you actually have a Bible, I encourage you to read your Bible every single day. I personally like to read my Bible in accordance with, I like to read my Bible in accordance with, uh, the devotional that I'm reading in that time. Um, or if I happen to have it upon like a verse, if I'm looking online, like if I see like a, a scripture on Pinterest and I'm like, that's very interesting, then I'll look it up online or in my Bible and then I might go on a deep dive, uh, deep dive study about it. Uh, but regardless, like I like to just like read my devotional and then read my bible and then like read those verses that correlate together and then maybe like verses that the Lord like points out to me or versus that I study for the podcast here. And that's like how I get my like daily Bible reading in. And I will say there are definitely days where I haven't necessarily like sat down and read like my physical bible, but I feel like most days I do at least use the bible app on my phone too. And I will highlight scriptures there and then spend time uh, looking up like what everything means if there is any unknown things or things they don't understand and just really diving into it, you know, spending like just genuinely spending time in his word and um, really reading it and setting it to truly understand like the context and the nuances, the nuances and the specific messages, uh, being given in the passage. And like the verses that you're reading in, I want you to know that like reading your Bible also just like prayer doesn't need to look like a certain way. I would suggest like you don't have a Bible but you have internet access just like have maybe just that one tab open or maybe like one other tab that you can go and like type things in for a study, which could be like the blue letter Bible website, that's a great website for bible study, like top notch and for commentaries and different, um, translations of it. And just be able to have that focus of like, okay, you have a tab for the bible open, then you have a tab for a study and that's it so that you don't get too distracted by everything else. If you have a physical bible just sit anywhere and just sit and like read. And then if you need to look up commentaries, really try to have that um, what would be like self control. I was like, why can I not think of this word? Have the self-control to not get distracted by anything else. If you happen to take your phone and like look up certain verses or certain words and like what they mean and what the full context of the whole passage or chapter means when you're reading your Bible, you really have to have a lot of self-control when you stay focused and really wanna understand the word and and then also look up commentaries and studying at the same time. You know what I mean? So I just wanna tell you that cuz maybe you're not studying the Bible as heavily as I am, which is totally fine. It's just like it's so easy to get distracted when you're using the Bible and multiple things, but maybe you're not, maybe you're just gonna read the Bible and then you're just gonna write down what you think things mean and then you'll look them up later so that you can just kind of focus on what the words are. And then also you can pray at the same time you read the read the passage, think about it, meditate on it, and then pray and then ask God to reveal things to you about it before you do a deep dive into the commentary. Does that make sense? I know I like this sounds all very like technical, but you don't have to do it a specific way. I just do it my way and I do it a couple different ways. I would actually say it just depending on like what I'm trying to seek and understand cuz there's times where I literally will just read by sitting on the floor on this like very specific spot in my office and I won't have any, it's like my quiet Bible time where I literally don't have any music playing, just sit on the ground. I have my bible, I have my journal, and I wait for the Lord to speak to me. And sometimes it's based on the scripture I'm reading. A lot of times it's not just, you gotta find your own time. So whether it's like sitting on the floor or maybe sitting at a table or sitting outside or wherever you're doing it, just find the space that feels comfortable for you and then just read it. Just spend the time with him because all the wisdom, all the guidance, all the principles to live by are conveniently located in the Bible to read and understand and fully just like download into your heart and your mind so that when you do run into trouble or problems or setbacks in the future, if you are getting into the Bible every single day, you'll have those principles and guidance and pieces of wisdom there in your heart and mind that will pop up and help you know what to do next or, or how you truly should feel. And not just how your crazy emotions can tell you how to feel and um, and know h what like imitating Christ would look like and how you should go about certain things. You know what I mean? It's just like this inner guidance, it's there the more that you're ingesting it and taking it in and downloading it into your heart and your mind and your spirit. So in the book of Psalms, uh, chapter 1 19, 119, uh, verse 11, it says, I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. So I don't know if I put that all together. I'm sorry, I really got into that deep dive of like not getting distracted while reading the Bible, but when you read the Bible every day, it will help you to resist sin and temptation because again, you will recall the more that you're studying the Bible, like what being like Christ would be and the thing and how we should actually live our life and, and what we should do in times of trouble. Um, a recent verse that I just learned that I absolutely love and that's very helpful, that's not even in my notes. I just like, I just thought about it and I wanted to share it with you because it is like top of mind and it has been so great and helpful is Ecclesiastes chapter seven verse nine. This is literally off the top of my head, I'm not even looking it up, but it talks about how we should not, um, have like a temper or allow our temper to like dictate how we feel because, uh, anger can definitely like cause us to look like a fool because if we allow our emotions to run our lives and and determine our reactions and how we should, you know, go about our every day we'll be a hot mess express living on the struggle bus. And so that's why we need to get into the words so that the word could help temper our emotions, our reactions, our feelings, and truly lead us to what we actually should do and the way we actually should move forward and, and react and respond. Um, so it aligns with what God wants and the best thing for the situation. So reading the Bible will help you just to take a step back and realize, oh, this is not what God wants me to do. I don't need to do it. It kind of falls into these categories that I've read different things about and how can I resist it? How can I have the strength? All I need to do is call on God. That's what the Bible tells me to do. That's how reading the Bible every day can help you resist sin. It's just like hidden in your heart and it'll just pop up when you need it. It just will, it'll just bubble up to the surface. The next one is don't compromise yourself. Don't compromise yourself. So if you're in the vicinity of where temptation and sin are about to go down, you gotta leave. So I kind of already alluded to this before, but it's like if you are, you know, in the same room or area vicinity, OFin going down and you think that you can just sit there and only focus on your own thing and not like get tempted into being involved, I think you're, I think that's just foolish. I we're not giving ourselves an opportunity to practice strength. Like you, you think you are because you're like, I'm sitting there and I'm not gonna let myself get pulled in. And this is like the most like, um, interactive way for me to like, demonstrate strength and, and not getting involved. But actually you really just need to, you know, take a step back and, and find a way out, find a way away from that sin and not be engaged in it because even just you being there while it's happening, and I don't know what it could be, maybe it's just like, you know, engaging in gossip or a salacious behavior. Um, maybe it's just doing something that you know that you're not supposed to do. And that's gonna be different for everyone, right? Because it just depends on like what God is telling you what you should and shouldn't do and the Holy Spirit is just guiding you. But if you think that, oh no, I'll just be here and it's kinda like you're, you're kinda like supervising the sin. So it's like by being there you're kind of also like agreeing that it's okay that you do it, I'm just not gonna do it. Like, you don't wanna be on that part of it either. You don't wanna compromise yourself and you don't wanna like tempt yourself that maybe when they, you know, shift into doing something else that you still shouldn't be doing, but that seems more enticing and then you're like, well I was strong long enough, let me go get involved in that. No, you just need to find a way away from that so you don't tempt yourself. Like, don't compromise, put yourself in compromising positions. It's just not worth it. And that will definitely help you not give into temptation and sin because you are holding yourself back and, and keeping yourself apart from that. Um, but not in a dramatic way. You're really like, oh my gosh, you guys are terrible. I'm gonna go over here because this, that and the other. Like just like exit and be like, okay, I just have to go and like, don't be a part of it. Just don't get involved, right? It's like maybe you're out with your friends and you guys go out to dinner and then all of a sudden people are, you know, had too much to drink and feeling tipsy and they're like, okay, well now we're gonna like go and shoplift or something. And you're like, okay, this is when I go home. I cannot be a part of this. You guys shouldn't do this. I really hope that you don't, but I'm gonna go right? You're not gonna like allow yourself to get caught up in sin where you feel like you have to participate because people in that experience or you might be tempted to join later once. It just feels like people might try to push you to feel shame or guilt that you're not, or uh, you are a people blazer like I used to struggle with and you just feel like you have to participate if you're there. Like if you're present for it, you know what I mean? You're like, you know what I mean? You know what I mean? I don't need to like dig that much more deep into that. So don't compromise yourself. Like if sins about to go down, just get out, just go somewhere else. Go do something else if you can, if you're like Sabrina, I really literally couldn't go anywhere else, you're like, I am stuck here and there is nothing that I can do. Okay, well you need to find a way to block everything out as much as possible. Like sunglasses, hat noise, canceling headphones, something put up a sheet, a wall. You just need to be able to block it out and not be involved in it at all to keep yourself separated from that sin. In the book of first Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13, it says The temptations in your life are no different from other experiences. Sorry, the temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand when you are tempted. He will show you a way out so that you can endure. So God will show you a way out, you know, if you are tempted, if you feel like you wanna give into that, he'll be like, okay listen, you can take your exit over here. You just have to choose to do so. You have to choose to want to align with my will and what I'm telling you to do. So go this way and that's what God will be telling you, right? And, and he will not give us more than we can handle. He will not allow the temptation to be more than we can stand. And I would just like meditate on that. Like he will not allow the temptation to be more than we can stand. So that should tell you that anything that you are presented as a temptation or a sin for you to fall into, God knows that you can just say no and walk away. You just have to choose to do so because we have free will, he has given us free will. So you, you have the opportunity to not compromise yourself to get away. He is going to provide you with that out. You just have to take that out when you need it. Okay? Okay, so the last one that I wanna share with you is ask yourself, is this Christ-like behavior? Is this Christ-like behavior? So it's the same as the old, what would Jesus do? Kind of adage that many of us grew up with, I mean I am a millennial child and so this was definitely one of the biggest things of the nineties for me. The W W J D bracelets and um, key chains, t-shirts, all the things, all the swag for the W W J D, what would Jesus do? And I still think it's like I didn't wanna name this point that cuz I didn't want it to feel like super cheesy, but it's true. It's just like what would Jesus do? What would be actual Christlike behavior and what would be an imitation of Christ for? Like what would God actually do in this situation? And that should just be the easiest thing to ask. Like, okay, like they're gonna go like shoplifting or they're gossiping about this person or they're, they're not gonna allow this person to participate because of these judgmental, unfair things. What would Jesus do in this situation? Jesus probably would not just yell and scream and cause a scene, uh, but he also would not condone this behavior and he also like, and he wouldn't participate obviously. And maybe he would say something with wisdom and maybe you're like, okay, God, help me figure out what to say. And then maybe you'll even go to your bible or your Bible app on your phone and figure out something helpful to share with them that may like change their hearts and their minds. Maybe it won't, it's fine. But it doesn't mean that by you doing that and saying that and then taking your exit, that what you said to them won't like sink in at some point in the future. We may never know, maybe they'll still participate in the sin, but then what you said to them will be like the starting point for them to pull away from that type of behavior and have a new life and not engage in that lifestyle anymore. You never know, which is why we have to just like do what God tells us and align with his well. Because despite the fact that we might not see an instant return in what he's telling us to do, we don't know everything that he's planning. We barely know anything. So we just need to trust that he has this amazing plan in place. He knows what he is doing, so we just need to do it because he has proven himself faithful in providing for us and helping us and being absolutely amazing. So honestly, just ask yourself if what you're about to do is something Jesus will participate in and allow the Holy Spirit which you receive when accepting Jesus into your heart to guide you in what you do, you will be able to be like, oh no, this isn't it. Or Yes, I should, or you know, let me spend more time in prayer. Let me actually like not get so distracted by wanting to, um, be a part of that. It's like, if it doesn't matter if I participate of being like accepted into the group or not, then what would I do? It's like, okay, if I was already accepted into the group, would I still wanna do this thing right? Is it all dependent on just me wanting to, you know, live for the world and not for God? Like really ask yourself those questions. So is this Christ-like behavior? Should I engage in it? And that will like, I would say most of the time give you the answer that you need to whether or not you should engage in this thing that feels very tempting, um, or very like sin, like, you know, and I have two scriptures to round this all out for you. I had to have two for this point because it was just so necessary. So in the book of Galatians chapter five, verse 16, it says, so I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. So again, if you allow the Holy Spirit, which you will receive in your heart, when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then it will help guide you. It'll help tell you like, yes, this is good. No, this is bad. Wow, you really need to exercise extra caution and yield here. You need to probably guard your heart and not really be involved in this too much like the Holy Spirit will lead you if you allow it. Also in the book of Romans chapter 12, verse two, this is like most classic, most classic scripture talking about not, you know, being of the world. It says don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you'll learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. So don't be like the world, don't feel like you have to conform to what they're doing. You have to be a carbon copy. You have to do all this, that and the other. Again, if we are actually living for Christ, we are gonna be set apart on the hill, the light for Christ. And people are gonna be judgmental and opinionated and not nice sometimes and shut us out. But this is the life that we have to lead to be that light for Christ. And it's necessary. And sometimes it does feel lonely and does feel sad and disheartening, but when we have those feelings, we just need to lean on God and be like, God, can you help me with these feelings that I'm having? And I know that like Jesus did this wonderful, amazing thing for us and you want to, um, sorry, you want to, you know, mimic him and have that Christ-like behavior that, that we're always constantly seeking, but sometimes it's just so difficult when we have the loneliness and we have the feelings and we know that we wouldn't if we were engaging in this thing, despite the fact that it's bad and it's wrong and we shouldn't be. You know what I mean? So really just like asking God like, God, help me to be strong, to not want to, you know, be involved in these things that the people of. The world are doing and not wanna conform to their behavior and given to these temptations and these sense that we are trying to stay away from so that we can, you know, align with your will in your way, um, and just change you as a person altogether so that you have that um, new clean heart that's only focused on serving you and not all this other junk, other crap. You know what I mean? So anyway, I love that verse so much. I know it's like, it's one of the most popular ones in the Bible. Um, but that doesn't make it any less effective. If anything, it makes it more, it's just absolutely amazing and it's one of the best reminders that we need so that we can just focus and have our eyes on Christ, you know, and serving him. So that's it. I did have this. I feel like God was telling me that I need to start praying at the end of these episodes. So I'm gonna go ahead and do that really quick and then we'll be done here. So thank you Lord, for anyone and everyone that has come to listen to this episode and maybe eventually watch it, watch the video version. And I just pray that you'll be with them as they take this message and take these tips and hopefully we'll help them to get better and stronger at relying on God to help them to resist temptation and to not fall into sin. Because again, I'm sharing tips and I'm sharing advice that's helpful for them to not allow themselves to choose sin and instead choose God. But it's still not in our own strength. We're still relying on God and the Holy Spirit to guide us in what we need to do and where we need to go. And but also relying on God to give us the strength to say no and crying out to him for help so that we don't, um, make the bad choice of choosing sin and getting involved in something that is not in our best interests and not what God wants for us. So I just pray that this will be helpful to them and that they have a really good week and that they're blessed and uh, they're able to see the world through your perspective and really just focus on you and what they need to do for you while also being a light in the world and sharing you with people. And it doesn't have to be in any specific way. Um, even the joy and the happiness and the peace that we have despite the struggles that we are currently going through can definitely be a light of Christ to others. So thank you so much, God. And I just know that everyone's gonna have a good day and a good week and a good month and a good all the things as long as we have faith that you will be there for us, which you always are in your name, right? Amen. So thank you so much for listening to The Real Positive Girl podcast. I came with me, Sabrina, take a look in the show notes below to find me on socials. Check out the journal to submit a topic suggestion to do anything and everything to visit the YouTube channel for the podcast. But until next time, have a good one and I will see y'all next time. Bye friends.