Author Max Lucado offers two very simple strategies for protecting ourselves from sin and temptation.  The first is to recognize Satan.  So often, we are lured into a sin because it looks so attractive, so fulfilling, so right at the time.  So we find ways to rationalize our actions and make excuses for our attitudes.  Instead, we must be like Jesus in the desert and call Satan by name.  No more sugar-coating the truth.  Don’t try to water down the power of sin. 

Second, Lucado urges us to accept God’s forgiveness.  He calls chapter 7 in the book of Romans our “Emancipation Proclamation.”  In chapter 7, Paul writes of his struggle with sin, his shame over his failures, his disgust with himself.  But then, at the very end of chapter 7and the very beginning of chapter 8 declares, “There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”