Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. ~ Romans 6:12-18
We don’t like to be slaves to anyone or anything. Yet clearly we have been slaves to sin, when we let sin control our lives. Now, through God’s grace, we can be slaves to obedience, to righteousness because we let God control our lives. Sin is a terrible taskmaster, but God is a loving and kind father.
Loving and gracious God, I do not want to be the slave of sin. I want You—only You—to be in control of my life. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.