Victory over sin
The believer’s primary victory in salvation is victory over sin. The unbeliever may approach Christ with the burden of guilt, sinful, dishonorable habits or lifestyle etc., believing that Christ’s acceptance of him implies that all is forgiven and he is justified to begin a brand new life.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2Co 5:17
Unfortunately for some who have received Christ, they struggle with believing that God has forgiven them, especially if they find it hard to forgive themselves or if some other people wouldn’t forgive them.
Repentance can be even more difficult. 
Repenting from sin implies turning away from the sinful act with the intention of never doing it again. It’s easier to tell your self , or spouse, or parents, or children, that you’ll never do something again, but with God, it is probably not usually simple to just say: “God I’ll never ever do that again”. I guess that’s because understandably, sin is usually that thing which we don’t love to do anymore and don’t want to do, but may sometimes find ourselves doing anyway.
Sometimes we feel we sin because we do not have time to think or consider our options. Most of the time, we may have impulsively said something rash in anger, back-bit, or told a little lie just before we realise, with disappointment in ourselves, that we have sinned already. With other kinds of sin, like sexual immorality and similar lusts we may try to convince ourselves that we are giving vent to natural feelings or desires, as if the fact that sin comes naturally to us can make it legitimate.
Geniuine repentance is difficult or impossible if we do not reckon on the grace of God. God never gave anyone an injunction never to sin, save that which he has backed up by His grace.
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Php 2:13
It is by the grace of God that we are what we are, or do what we ought to do. Living the Christian life of victory over sin, is our gift in Christ Jesus. We are not struggling to impress God, but rather His grace challenges us to reckon our selves dead to sin and alive unto righteousness. So that when we are tempted or confront sin, we can know that the power we excercise NOT TO SIN, is not in ourselves but in the grace of God in Christ.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Romans 6:11-14
Sin is beneath the Christian. Christ went through too much to make us holy instruments of His righteousness. Let there be no excuses, every little sin is big enough to spoil our testimony, even if it is one done in our closets. There is no pleasure in sin for the born-again man, only shame and power loss.
Devotional Prayer
Lord, I know that my victory over sin and sinful habits is not by my own making. I am determined to shun the lusts in my heart and to overcome my weaknesses because your grace has given me victory over sin. I pray you continually use me as an instrument of your righteousness and help me to take daily advantage of your grace, so that I can live in victory and my life can be to you a sweet-smelling living sacrifice.
