Are struggling with a particular sin that seems to have a stronghold on you? A "Darling Sin"? You commit this particular sin because you like it. You know it is wrong but you do it anyway... because you like it after you commit this sin you feel guilty and remorseful. You repent and ask God to forgive you only to go right back and do it again. It's as if there are two of you warring against each other. It  becomes a vicious cycle.

How does one stop doing something that is wrong when, if we are honest with ourselves, we like it. Let's use the analogy of pizza because most of us love pizza. If pizza became a sin tomorrow we would have trouble because we like it...a lot. So then, it seems that until we stop liking some thing we wont stop doing it. If so , then how do you stop liking something that you truly like...do you see the frustration that we experience?

Another way to look at it might be that we will always like sin and it will always be a struggle. When Jesus said we have to pick up our cross and deny ourselves daily does this mean the denial of the pleasures of sin. We just want to stop doing certain things. As Christians we feel like such a hypocrites.

Even the mighty Paul had this problem. "For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing." (Romans 7:18-19)

The only hypocrites among us are those who deny they have problems similar to this. For some it's over eating, or drinking too much. Others can't control their tempers, or their lusts, or their envy, or their pride. Still others have idols they can't lay down, like their possessions, their bank accounts, or their leisure activities. If sin wasn't pleasurable we'd have no trouble denying it. In God's view all sins are unacceptable.

The guilt you feel is the devil trying to steal your joy. It sounds counter-intuitive, but the best way to get rid of a recurring sin is to hate it as much as God hates it, and to stop giving it a place in your life. The devil exploits the importance we give to our sins by heaping on extra guilt for committing them, which actually has the effect of making a repeat offense more likely. Pretty soon we feel so bad that we're hiding from God, like Adam in the garden, and that's just what the devil wants.

2 Peter 2: 4-9 says

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;  5And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;  6And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;  7And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:  8(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)  9The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished

You must admit that you are helpless against sin and the temptations of the devil. We are no match for Satan, no matter how hard you try, no matter how hard you fight Satan, He operates in the spiritual realm, and we of ourselves in our flesh cannot fight such spiritual battles of our own strength and might. It will never happen, has never happened, and can never happen.

So how do you defeat the devil and not give in to sin? When you sin, confess and receive your forgiveness. (1 John 1:9) For God, that's the end of it and He forgets it ever happened. You do the same. Repeat the verse from James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Guilt does not come from God. You resist the devil by seeing the guilt for what it is, his effort to drive a wedge between you and God, and rejecting it.

You must understand that in order to defeat Satan and all his temptations he would come before you with to give to you, that a power much stronger than you and Satan is necessary for such defeat. Hebrews 2:14 says  Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.

So from this verse in scripture we see that Jesus, who became flesh and blood like us, and in his dying and resurrection from death was able to break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.

Dear friend, we are to be empty vessels unto God, and our spirit must be crucified with Christ on the cross, where he bore all our sins. In exchange for the spirit of the world which is born into all of us, we exchange it at the cross for the spirit of God through Christ Jesus. His spirit must indwell us, not that of the devil who seeks to control us and our desires.

James 1: 13-14 says And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. 14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. 15 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

Jesus conquered death, he alone obtained the power over Satan to do so. Replace the spirit of this world with the spirit of God through His son Jesus Christ and you will have victory over any sin and temptation.

The most important thing for all of us to remember is that this life isn't about pleasing ourselves. It's about thanking God for saving us. We do it by emptying ourselves of the spirit of this world and accepting the power of Christ that is within us.