What Should I Do When I Keep Failing in My Struggle With Sin?
An Honest Answer to an Honest Question
By Steve Childers
Pathway Learning's 30-hour intensive course for underserved leaders in East Asia (2024)
Editor’s Note: This article is adapted from Steve Childers’ answer to a church leader in the persecuted church in China during a recent 30-hour online, interactive, intensive Pathway Learning Spiritual Formation course. For the past four years, this course has been taught annually to equip church planters and leaders in East Asia. Few things are more discouraging than repeatedly stumbling in the same sins. One Christian leader in the course asked Steve directly:
“What should I do when I keep failing in my struggle against sin?”
This is an excellent question because it touches the very core of what the Bible teaches about how we are to live the Christian life. If I could sum up the Bible’s answer in one sentence, it would be something like this: Keep drawing nearer to God in obedience by going deeper in repentance and faith in Christ with others. Or, to put it more simply: Don’t give up! Keep going deeper with others.
Don’t Give Up
When progress feels painfully slow, it’s tempting to believe nothing will ever change. That’s one of Satan’s greatest lies. He whispers: “You’ll never grow. You’ll never change.”
But Scripture teaches the opposite. God often uses slow, unseen perseverance as one of his primary tools to shape us. Paul reminds us in Philippians 3:10 that knowing Christ deeply means not only sharing in his resurrection power, but also sharing in his sufferings—which are often the very means through which that power is experienced.
Suffering, setbacks, and spiritual dryness are not signs that God has abandoned you. They are part of his loving plan to draw you closer to him. As 1 Corinthians 10:13 promises, he never allows you to face more than you can bear and always provides the grace you need—at just the right time. So don’t quit. Even when growth feels invisible, keep pressing on.
Keep Going Deeper
But perseverance doesn’t mean doing the same thing again and again. If you’re not seeing fruit, the invitation is to go deeper—deeper in repentance and deeper in faith in Christ.
Repentance is more than confessing outward sins. As John Calvin said, the human heart is an “idol factory.” Beneath every sinful action lies a deeper idol—something we are looking to instead of God for our comfort, control, or significance. Identifying these hidden idols helps us repent not just of what we do, but why we do it.
Repentance must always be paired with faith. Robert Murray M’Cheyne wisely said: “For every one look at your sin, take ten looks at Christ.” Too often, we reverse that ratio, staring at our failures while barely glancing at our Savior.
The good news is that transformation doesn’t come from obsessing over sin but from beholding Christ—the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord. Different seasons of life may highlight different facets of his glory: justification when you feel guilty, adoption when you feel lonely, regeneration when you feel powerless.
Transformational growth comes primarily not from looking harder at yourself, but from looking longer at Jesus.
Keep Going Deeper with Others
And don’t try to do this alone. God designed you to grow in community, not in isolation. You cannot fully see your own idols—or the depth of God’s love—without the help of others.
This is why ordinary Christian practices matter so deeply. Gathering with God’s people on the Lord’s Day—hearing the Word preached, receiving the sacraments, joining in prayer—are God’s chosen instruments to transform us into the image of his Son.
Spiritual growth is slow, steady, and often hidden. But in community, by God’s Spirit, it is also unstoppable.
The Sacred-Mundane Power of Steady Growth
The preacher G. Campbell Morgan once told of a cemetery in Italy where an unbeliever had placed a massive marble slab over his grave to declare his disbelief in the resurrection. Years earlier, an acorn had fallen into the grave. Over time, it grew into an oak tree that split the marble in two.
That’s how God works in us—not suddenly, but through steady, patient growth.
So no matter how many times you fall, no matter what heavy slab seems to weigh on your heart, remember this: the Spirit of God is stronger. If you keep going deeper in repentance and faith, with others by your side, God’s Spirit will break through barriers you could never move on your own.
That is the sacred, ordinary way God transforms us—little by little—into the likeness of Christ.
Reflection Questions
Where are you most tempted to give up in your struggle with sin?
What idols might lie beneath your repeated struggles?
What is one step you can take this week to look more deeply at Christ?
Who could you invite to walk alongside you in repentance and faith?
