Dealing with the roots of sin.
1. There must be a sincere desire to recognize sin as sin and to have a horror of sin, to see sin as God sees sin. Without this desire we will live with sin the way we live with other harmful things in our life. We sometimes justify our lack of dealing with sin by accepting sin as a normal part of our fallen nature. Or we feel that what we are doing is really not that bad. It is like a diabetic saying a little sugar is not that bad, failing to see that a little sugar added to a little sugar could lead to disastrous consequences.

We need to ask God to see sin from his perspective. To him every sin, no matter grave or not, is an abomination and an affront to his love for us and the sharing of his life. Like Adam and Eve every sin causes us to see ourselves naked and to hide ourselves from God. Sin affects our relationship with God as his adopted sons and daughters. We become prodigal and alienated from him by choice. As such it affects our self-identity and self understanding. The more we remain in sin, the more this becomes negative.