Every Christian will face temptation. All of us have that pattern or sin that we return to time and time again against our better intentions. In this 6-day Track, Ben Stuart teaches us how to identify and eliminate those temptations that fuel the very habits we’re looking to overcome.

Temptation is something we all wrestle with. Whether you call it a habit, addiction, or sin, it all begins with temptation and ends with death.

We may have engaged in these habits because we thought they would relieve us from our pain or bring pleasure into our lives. And for a little while, engaging in these activities may have temporarily satiated our desires. But now, it has led us to the absence of life. It has cost more than we want to pay.

The lure of temptation gets your attention. You don’t just think about it, it entices you, stirring your affections. What you think about is what you care about, and what you care about is what you chase.

If you want to save yourself from the consequences of a bad habit, it starts by being a student of yourself.

There is hope today. If we are willing to step outside of the cycle of sin and shame and take stock of where we are likely to succumb to temptation, we can put a strategy for victory in place. Let’s find a way forward together.

As we look at the book of James, we’re reminded that we are going to face difficult trials in our lives. And when these trials come, temptation is sure to follow.

We have all been in difficult moments where all we want to do is get out of the pain and alleviate discomfort. This is where temptation enters in. This habit we want to kill has an allure to it and a promise of pleasure. It also has a push to it—a pain we want to alleviate.

When we’re stressed or frustrated, we can start looking at things to alleviate the discomfort of those feelings. How can we analyze the habits we have formed born from problems or stressors in our lives?

“Be the architect of your environment—not the victim of it.”

There are cues in your environment that kickstart a craving. We don’t want something until we see it.

One of the best ways we can fight against our habits is by eliminating the moment. Don’t linger in dangerously isolated positions and reposition yourself where victory is much more likely.

Get radical about changing your environment to stop the temptation.

“So many of us shame ourselves for lack of willpower when really what we need is forethought.”

Now that we know the habit we want to kill, how do we position ourselves to do so? How do we get radical about eliminating the moments that put us in a place where victory is unlikely?

As we gear up to actually take action and confront our bad habits, We are challenged to consider all of the negative outcomes of engaging in a particular behavior before actually engaging in that particular behavior.

It’s another simple question we can ask ourselves that can have life-changing results:

“What will this habit cost me?”

Before you engage in temptation, look at the destruction it may cause you later in life. When you compare the consequences of the action to the benefit of not performing that action, the allure begins to lessen. Remember, “sin loses its allure in the cold light of day.”

The way to fight temptation is to look downstream at the destruction, and to look upstream at the deception.

The nature of the deception is to attempt to convince us that every good and perfect gift is not from above, coming from our Father. The lie that gives power to our sins is that God is not a good dad that will take care of us.

Every behavior is undergirded by our belief. Our beliefs give strength, power, and stability to our behaviors. Analyze what you really believe about God and yourself. Addiction at it’s root is an intimacy disorder—not believing that anyone cares about you or will accept you.

One of the best ways to fight the battle is to believe that you have a Father in heaven that loves you. When you believe that He loves you, you believe that He is good. And that even in pain, you will be humbled. When you rest in the love of God, the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and His grace.

The devil convinces you that your God doesn’t care about you, so you go to other places for comfort. He starts with distrust. To make sin look attractive, he makes God look ugly.

When you rest in the love of God, you will keep yourself from going to many deceptive streams to find relief.

How do you dislodge a beautiful thing from a human heart? You replace it with a more beautiful thing. The best defense against a bad habit is to engage in a good one.

Focus your attention on the things that make you joyful. Otherwise, the human machine will seek pleasure in things that are unproductive.

When you stop these bad habits, you may come to realize that you missed out on things that help you thrive. If you’re creative, you may find that you have less time to create. If you’re innovative, you have less time to ideate. If you’re outdoorsy, you may have found yourself never going outside. Find ways to satisfy those things that drive and motivate you instead of entertaining bad habits that do nothing but lead you to death.

Sin, addiction, and bad habits may have made a mess of us. But God is doing something great by giving us new life. Enjoy the world He made, dive into the Word He has written to us, and replace destructive things with positive ones.

The best defense is a good offense. We believe in you.