“Just as you presented your members as slaves to uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness” (Rom. 6:19)

The secret of overcoming lies (1) in wholly yielding to God with a sincere desire to do His will; (2) in knowing that He accepts us as His servants; (3) in retaining that submission to Him and leaving ourselves in His hands.

Often victory can be gained only by repeating again and again, “O Lord, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have loosed my bonds” (Ps. 116:16). This is simply an emphatic way of saying, “O Lord, I have yielded myself to You; let Your will be done and not the dictates of the flesh.”

But when we realize the force of that scripture that we are servants of God, immediately will come the thought, “Well, if I am indeed an instrument in the hands of God, He cannot use me to do evil with, nor can He permit me to do evil as long as I remain in His hands. He must keep me if I am [to be] kept from evil, because I cannot keep myself. But He wants to keep me from evil, for He has shown His desire and His power to fulfill it in giving Himself to me. Therefore I shall be kept from this evil.”

All these thoughts may pass through the mind instantly. Then must come a gladness that we shall be kept from the dreaded evil! That gladness naturally finds expression in thanksgiving to God. And while we are thanking God, the enemy retires with his temptation, and the peace of God fills the heart.

Then we find that the joy in believing far outweighs all the joy that comes from indulgence in sin!

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name…Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6: 9,13)

Waggoner, Christ and His Righteousness, pp. 94,95