So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your member to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Romans 6:11-14

Each journey into sin takes it toll. We sacrifice our closeness with God, forfeiting His blessing, and we lose our influence on others that comes from purity of mind and body. The wild areas in us may never be fully tamed, but we can set up perimeters that keep us from wandering into them. One perimeter is to remember that we are dead to sin's power. We do not have to give into it. The second perimeter is to resist temptation when it first attracts us. Initial temptation may not be strong, but if we entertain it, it will gain power and overwhelm us. The third perimeter is accountability. Find someone who can ask you each week whether or not you have gone into the wild wilderness, and gone where you should not have gone.

Beware of temptation!

The more you look at it, the better it looks.

Our Daily Bread - October 31, 2003