Here's a thought...It's not about you :)

God used this about a week or so ago to challenge my thinking and transform my view on fighting sin. I got The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges on audiobook free from christianaudio.com in January and am greatly enjoying it so far. This month's free download is The Holiness of God by Sproul. I'm noticing a trend and am glad for it because I feel that I lack wisdom of God's Holiness. I need to be reminded afresh of who He is and who I am in light of that fact.

Because of that, I'm putting in a lengthy section from the first chapter of The Pursuit of Holiness that God used in my reading and letting it speak for itself. Notice the great reminder that sanctification like salvation is all about God. You can read the entire chapter for free at B&N.com.

"Our first problem is that our attitude toward sin is more self-centered than God-centered. We are more concerned about our own "victory" over sin than we are about the fact that our sins grieve the heart of God. We cannot tolerate failure in our struggle with sin chiefly because we are success-oriented, not because we know it is offensive to God.

W. S. Plumer said, "We never see sin aright until we see it as against God.... All sin is against God in this sense: that it is His law that is broken, His authority that is despised, His government that is set at naught.... Pharaoh and Balaam, Saul and Judas each said, 'I have sinned'; but the returning prodigal said, 'I have sinned against heaven and before thee'; and David said, 'Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned.'"

God wants us to walk in obedience-not victory. Obedience is oriented toward God; victory is oriented toward self. This may seem to be merely splitting hairs over semantics, but there is a subtle, self-centered attitude at the root of many of our difficulties with sin. Until we face this attitude and deal with it we will not consistently walk in holiness.

This is not to say God doesn't want us to experience victory, but rather to emphasize that victory is a byproduct of obedience. As we concentrate on living an obedient, holy life, we will certainly experience the joy of victory over sin."