We all have them. Sins that we can’t seem to shake. Things that we do that, deep down, we know we shouldn’t. Some sins are easy for us to avoid but others seem like that are just part of our personality. In fact, we can scarcely imagine our lives without them.

And why not, we’ve worked hard to perfect these sins. We’ve practiced them often; some of them we’ve been practicing most of our lives. And, of course, we’ve invested a tremendous amount of time teaching our conscience not to bother us when we commit these sins. We’ve come up with great justifications or rationalizations for why its OK for us to commit these sins. We’ve even gone as far as to plead ignorance of God’s will. We don’t read those parts of the Bible. We conveniently forget those passages that unmistakably tell us we shouldn’t do what we’re doing.

Why do we have these particular sins that seem to stay with us? Well, some of us are predisposed to certain sins. We may be genetically predisposed to alcoholism, anger, violence, or lustful conditions. Does this mean that we get a pass on these sins? ‘I can’t help the way I am. This is how God made me.’

The truth is, we are all born sinful. This is the original sin that we inherited from Adam’s fall in the Garden of Eden. Because of this sin, our nature is in constant conflict with God’s will.

The Bible says in Romans 5:12:

Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned.

So, in fact, God did not make us sinful. This is our nature because of the sin of Adam. But through God’s love for us, he gave us a way to be forgiven of our sins; through the payment that Jesus made for our sins.

Of course, we must choose to accept this gift. We must, through our own free will, choose to ask God for forgiveness and for help in turning away from our sins. We must choose to believe that Jesus died to take the punishment for our sins. This is the meaning of our lives.

So then, what about these favorite sins of ours? How do these fit in? Are these sins God’s way of trying to trap us in a life of sin and keep us from claiming Jesus’ payment? No, quite the opposite.

St. Paul had a particular weakness that he dealt with. The Bible is not clear if it was a physical shortcoming or a temptation or fault. Paul himself calls it ‘…a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me.’ Paul said that this ‘thorn in the flesh’ humbled him. Paul asked Jesus to take away this thorn but Jesus didn’t. Instead he told Paul, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ (2 Corinthians 12:7-9)

This is a powerful statement. Jesus’ grace, the undeserved love he has for us, is sufficient to overcome our weaknesses. His love and forgiveness can overcome our failings. His power is greater than our weaknesses and he can overcome them if we ask for his help.

In this, Jesus tells us that we can turn to him to help us overcome these favorite sins; the sins that we thought we could not escape. He promises us that, even if these sins are part of who we are, he can help us. If we are predisposed to certain sinful behaviors, we have the assurance that we do not have to fight these things on our own. If we turn to God and ask for his help, he will be our strength for us.

When we turn to God for help, when we read the Bible every day and pray to God every day; he will help us resist the temptations that we may have had all our lives. Then the most miraculous thing happens: the desires of our hearts change. When we fill our hearts with God’s word; when we stop trying to excuse or justify our sins, we can feel our hearts change. These things, that we thought we couldn’t live without, become abhorrent to us. If we do commit these sins again, rather than excusing them away, our conscious shakes us to our core and we find ourselves begging God for forgiveness and asking him to help us to never do these things again.

Then we realize that the very things we thought we had to have in order to give us happiness in life, were the very things keeping us from the real happiness God has for us. When we live by God’s will and keep his commandments; the wall of sin that separates us from God, is torn down. We are overcome by an incredible sense of peace because we know we can trust God to guide us down the path that is best for us. We are filled with a joy unlike anything that sin can give us. It is the joy that comes from God and from living the way he meant for us to live.

We pray in The Lord’s Prayer, ‘…thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.’ Living according to God’s will is like a glimpse of Heaven in our own lives. This is the way we will live with God for eternity in Heaven. Why would we not want a bit of Heaven in our lives right now?

Does this mean that temptation will never attack us again? No. In fact, the Devil may fight harder not to lose us. But we have the promise of Jesus, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ There is no temptation that Jesus can’t protect us from. There is no behavior that Jesus can’t change. There is no predisposition that can’t be conquered by putting out trust in God.

So, rather than looking at these favorite sins as something we must live with or something that will forever keep us separated from God; we should see these as things the drive us to Jesus. They are the things that we know we cannot overcome on our own. The reason we may have been born with these favorite sins is so that, one day, we would realize that we need Jesus’ power; that we cannot rely on ourselves for our salvation.

God loves us so much that he can bring us closer to him even when the Devil tempts us the most. God will use our greatest weaknesses to show us the strength of his love.