Obtaining Victory Over Sin - NetBibleStudy.com

Victory Over Sin 853. OverconfidentThe next state comes when he feels he has finally mastered the situation. At last,he has his problem under control. Opportunities to drink are just as numerous as ever.One of his associates says, “Aw, you can handle it.” Until now, he has been refusing suchoffers. But now, he feels he is the master of a whole new world. Surely he is able tohandle a single drink. So he says “Yes, just this once.”At this point, Dunn says, the alcoholic goes in one of two directions. If he is ableto stop at one drink, he confirms his conclusion that he can handle drinking. He loseshis fear of alcohol. He finds it easy to take another drink when it is offered.Or that one drink might inflame his passion for alcohol. Dunn writes, “One drinkmight be enough to plunge him to the very depths of alcoholism as quickly as one can be pushedover a cliff.”Either way, the end result is the same: he will become completely victimized bythe bottle again. Dunn mentions a doctor who completed the cycle in 10 years. Bydrinking a half-glass of beer, he started on another binge that eventually ruined hishome and cost him his practice.Our problem may not be alcoholism but the cycle will follow the same pattern,unless we are careful and rely on the Holy Spirit to give us the resources needed forfinal and complete victory.What Does God Want to Teach Us?What can we learn from our failures? God uses our failures to teach us severallessons. The moment we fail, we receive a crash course in theology. We are vividlyreminded that pride comes before a fall. Bunyan was right when he wrote, “He that islow need fear no fall.”Remember the Israelites at Ai? They had just conquered Jericho, a city fortifiedwith huge, strong walls. God had just done a miracle; the walls had collapsed. The nextcity on their agenda was the smaller town of Ai. Fresh from the victory of Jericho, themen decided that only a small contingent would be needed to conquer the city. ButIsrael was defeated! Israel’s self-confidence was ill-founded. In their enthusiasm forvictory, they had overlooked the sin that was in the camp. Their past victory was noguarantee for future conquests.We need to realize that possibly our most dangerous moment is when we thinkwe have finally mastered our situation. A series of victories sets us up for a fall. Notone of us should every think, “This is one sin I have under control. I’ll never commit itagain.”