For the past nine weeks, I have been preaching this series of messages. This article is the last two parts. I feel this message is so important that it must be shared with a larger audience.

A black Mercedes careened out of control in a Paris underpass, leaving a trail of devastation tallied in three lives lost and another shattered. Nations mourned, families grieved, friends accused, and children cried for the Princess Diana who moved so gracefully and died so violently. All because of a loss of control!

We have all seen it before..the tangled wreckage of lives blown apart, families shattered, integrity crushed, and all for the yielding to a familiar temptation. Some are blessed enough to walk away from their episodes of out-of-control living. Others are not, and a marriage, a friendship, a testimony, and another young life die in the twisted wreckage of temptation lost.

Unintended disaster is the end of uncontrolled desires. Without daily disciplines, we leave the doorways of our soul open to suggestion. The path that leads from suggestions to intention is well traveled. Forbidden fruit ripens in the warm glow of our attentions. Though we know better, we allow ourselves to be deceived. Our values become inverted; we believe that bitter is sweet, wrong is right, down is up, and failure is free of charge. Too late, we awaken in the prodigal’s pigpen, so far from the best… So far from home!

How can we keep our hearts out of the pigpen? How can we wrest control from renegade desire? As physical fitness requires daily exercise, so spiritual fitness demands daily disciplines. When the following seven disciplines are practiced with consistency, we gain victory over our most potent temptations.

Set Absolute Boundaries. Joseph of Old Testament days was tempted with pleasure with Potiphar’s wife, but he resisted temptations because he set absolute boundaries. He could not imagine himself doing such a wicked thing to sin against God. He knew his boundaries.

Unless we establish clear boundaries and refuse to cross the line, we will fall. The poud man, in hot pursuit of power, ignores the boundaries. He is soon far from home!

Seek Accountability. A noted television evangelist boasted of his lack of accountability on Tuesdays. He fell on a Tuesday! Many Christians resist accountability because of a violated trust in a past betrayal that convinces them to go it alone. When we lock the doors and close the shutters because somebody let us down, we live in darkness, never seeing the light of forgiveness and restoration.

Choosing one with whom to share our struggles should be a prayerful, careful, and thoughtful decision. Choosing to go it alone ensures disaster.

Memorize Biblical Passages. Sin starts in the thought life, and that is where we need the weapons of God’s Word. We can defeat sin before it is grown by planting truth where deception would grow and throwing light into the dark corners of the soul. When we get the Scripture into our thought life, we uproot tiny shoots before they become giant oak trees!

Run From Evil. Sensible people do not swim with sharks, tickle grizzlies, or play with rattlesnakes. Many Christians, however, do not seem to understand the dangers of sin. Not wanting to be out of present ideologies of the world, they find themselves constantly out of step with God. Living close to the world, they are easily drawn into all kinds of evil. If it looks, smells, sounds, or feels like evil … RUN!
Pray. Fallen Christian leaders testify that, before they fell, their prayer life had withered. Temptations flourish when there is a drought of prayer. The enemy of our soul is not hindered by our talents, works, worth, or intentions, but he trembles when we pray. We tremble when we fail to pray!

Do Not Turn Off the Alarm System. The alarm system of the soul is the conscience. At times, all that is needed is a quiet prompting. At other times, we need bells, sirens, horns, gates, and flashing lights. The conscience can offer us a full range of warning. But if warnings are repeatedly ignored, conscience soon loses its power like a discharged battery. When God seems far away, the conscience has been depleted. It must be charged by prayer and God’s Word every day.

Celebrate Each Victory. When we have derailed a besetting sin before it has gathered steam…when we have uprooted lust in the thought life…when we have beaten pride through prayer – REJOICE! Giving praise to God only increases our awareness of His presence and his power!

Alexander the Great instilled confidence in the hearts of his soldiers. With each victory celebration, the troops’ faith in Alexander increased. As kingdom after kingdom was trampled underfoot, the troops believed Alexander could do anything, and they fought with supreme confidence.
Our God truly can do anything, and we can have unshakable confidence in Him. As each temptation is trampled, take time to give God glory! Each victory will diminish the power of our particular reoccurring temptation!

With consistent application, these seven disciples can lead us to victory over temptation. We can have mastery instead of maintenance, triumph in the place of tragedy, growth instead of guilt, and abundant life instead of eternal death!

Have you been living on a fault line, flirting with disaster? Have you been running all the red lights on the road to ruin? Trade those good intentions for daily disciplines. It is time we put out-of-control, out-of-commission! Break the Sin Cycle and win the war!