Yes, habitual sin, not in the sense that I don't care about it but that I am too weak to resist it.
Hello David, I'm sorry to hear about your struggle with sin. I'm praying for you about it!
The Bible (as someone has already pointed out for us) makes it clear that God wants us to have the assurance of our salvation .. e.g.
1 John 5:13, but assurance is a difficult thing to have whenever we sin, especially habitually (as I know you are already aware).
As far as being "weak" goes, we are all weak in regard to temptations and sin, but the good news is, God makes sure that the temptations that we face, day by day (sometimes, moment by moment) are never too much for us to handle (as someone above has already mentioned .. e.g.
1 Corinthians 10:13).
We also have a number of other wonderful promises from Him in regard to this problem, like the one that we find at the end of this verse.
James 4
7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil ~and he will flee from you~.
So, here are some of the practical things that you can do to resist temptations and sin.
1. Begin again to grow in your knowledge and understanding of God/His word every day, because His word is one of the principal means that He uses to sanctify us .. e.g.
John 17:17 cf Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:1-3; 119:105; Romans 12:2; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Deuteronomy 11:18-21........ (I noticed in your OP that you chose to turn away from the Bible because you were afraid of what it might reveal to you about yourself and your salvation, but that is the very last thing that you want to do, because ignorance, in this case, is never bliss
).
2. Begin to practice the Lord's "presence" in the whole of your daily life (moment by moment by moment, IOW) by choosing to include Him in everything that you do, more and more. As the Bible tells us,
1 Thessalonians 5
16 Rejoice always;
17 pray without ceasing;
18 in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
If these commands seem overwhelming to you, start small (remember that as a saint and a child of our loving, heavenly Abba, "time" is on your side, yes
). So (for instance), begin by taking time throughout your day to look for things to
rejoice in and
thank Him for, even the smallest of things.
.
3. Learn to ~turn your eyes away~ from anything that you know will tempt you (as soon as you see it). It will take time for you to become comfortable doing this, but (of the things that "we" can do to help in our battle against sin) this is our first line of defense.
4. RESIST/REFUSE each and every temptation that comes your way by taking it "
captive", again and again and again, as long as it continues to be necessary for you to do so (I know that this aspect of the battle can be both tiring and painful, but when times are difficult, like they are for you now, our "fight" against temptation and sin needs to be considered a "war" against it instead)! Remember the Lord's promise in
James 4:7 by trusting Him/choosing to take Him at His very word, even when it seems like the battle that you are presently in (with our common enemy) will never be over.
2 Corinthians 10
5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we ~take captive~ every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Praying for you!
God bless you!!
--David
p.s. - here is one of my very favorite little passages in regard to all of this, because it not only tells us what we need to do, it tells us how to do it, as well
(we can talk more about what the Bible means in v11 if you'd like to, but I'm going to stop here because this post is already way too long .. sorry about that)!
Psalm 119
9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Thy word.
11 Thy word I have treasured (hidden/stored up) in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee.
