Don’t say to me, “The devil made me do it.” I’ll tell you that is an indication that you are still his slave. If you are a slave (servant) to Jesus, the devil can’t make you do anything!”

Saying “the devil made me do it” is just sort of a whimpy way of refusing to accept responsibility, and it generally does put an end to the conversation. But it does nothing toward cleaning up your sin.

Three reasons why you did what you know you should not have done. 1.Thoughtlessness, carelessness – being off guard; or 2. Habit or 3, Because you wanted to. All those things can be forgiven. Take them to the cross.

Romans 6:16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. (NLT)

You would have a hard time telling Jesus “the devil made me do it.” He doesn’t forgive what is not acknowledged. Acknowledge your sin, take it to Jesus, and find out what a loving “forgiver” he is. He has already carried that sin for you!

I am taking the following paragraph from Eliah, who says so well the point I am trying to make above:

I believe that the struggle of the cross is partly the struggle of the flesh. Our flesh is used to doing things its own way and most of those ways are not God’s ways. There are things we can blame the enemy for and others things that are just caused by the desires of our flesh. When we get saved, we get a new life in Christ. The Holy Spirit comes and dwells in us. It is a great new start and we get very excited. At least I know I got very excited. However, we still have to contend with the flesh. We have to put the flesh to death so to speak. We have to suppress the desires of the flesh. We have to grow out of the habits of the flesh and grow into the habits of the Spirit. https://wordsfromeliah.wordpress.com/2022/10/09/take-up-your-cross/

Thank you, Eliah. Your post was well worth the reading and meditation time.