A lot of people try to overcome sin by focusing on it. That’s a losing battle. If you focus on sin, you will always see yourself as a sinner. And if you always see yourself as a sinner, you will live from that identity and never be able to overcome it.
The biblical solution is the opposite. Focus on who you really are. Live from a new identity as someone empowered by God’s Spirit. If you’re fully occupied with the Spirit, there won’t by room for anything else. That’s why Paul wrote:
Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16)
You don’t overcome human nature in the power of human nature. You overcome it in the power of the Spirit. Any effort to reform your old nature will strengthen it by focusing on it. Ignore sin, put your focus on the Spirit, walk in the Spirit’s strength and by his leading, and you’ll begin to experience freedom.
