1 John 3:6,8-9
No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a PRACTICE of sin. Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil. It’s not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning.
Over the last week God has really been talking to me about how we become the decisions we make. The more we choose something, the more we become that something. That “something”-whether it’s good or bad-becomes our nature. Our character. This got me thinking about the choices I make on a micro-level. My struggles lie in my day-to-day. When there’s a big decision to be made, more times than not, I like to think I choose correctly. But where I start to slip is in those tiny, seemingly meaningless choices I make throughout the day. Those choices that appear to have a “harmless” impact on my character as whole, but over time become my nature, my fall back, even in the big decisions. Like choosing cookies for breakfast instead of yogurt. Or spending money on a shirt I don’t really need, when I still owe a friend money. Or exaggerating the truth when telling a story so the story (and me) appear to sound more interesting. Or justifying a white lie I told because I didn’t feel like telling the whole story. Or still being mad over something that happened a week ago. On the surface, these choices seem harmless to me and to others. But over time, with each little decision I make in this direction, I build momentum in the direction of those decisions. It becomes easier and easier to have cookies instead of yogurt. Spending money needlessly becomes more frequent. Exaggerating the truth becomes a natural response. Holding a grudge becomes my nature.
God reminded me this morning that he knows we are not perfect and he knows we are going to sin. But he does not want us to make a PRACTICE of sinning. And the only way we can make sure we don’t become practicing sinners is by being honest with God and ourselves. Have you ever felt the Holy Spirit tugging at your heart or conscious about something? How many times have you turned a deaf ear, numbed yourself to his voice, or simply jumped in to another distraction in your day so you wouldn’t have to deal with Him? But when we do this, we fail to realize the freedom that God is offering us in that moment. Truth, honesty and repentance equal freedom folks. We must always be willing to “go there” with God. To have those hard, uncomfortable, honest discussions with Him where we allow him to discipline us and convict us when we do wrong. Because it’s only in that place where the blinders come off and we can be made aware of why what we did was wrong. And in that moment, God gives us the wonderful opportunity to ask for forgiveness, to repent and to start over. To quit practicing a particular sin or sins. If we don’t allow these conversations to occur with God we give the Devil a foothold. We open ourselves up to continuing to choose wrong which eventually and always leads to destruction on some level. Those choices, those practices, start to become who we are. They become our nature. You’ve heard the saying “You are what you eat”. This applies to food, lies, spending habits, rationalizations, addictions, laziness, anger etc.
God wants us to be diligent in removing sin from our lives. I leave you with an excerpt from Greg Boyd’s book “Letters from a Skeptic”. Meditate on it and ask God to reveal to you areas in your life where you need him to take the blinders off and start fresh. His mercies are new EVERY day. It’s never too late to start over…trust me, I do it DAILY!! J
“The more we choose something, the harder it is to choose otherwise, until we finally are solidified-eternalized-in our decision. The momentum of our character becomes unstoppable. We create our character with our decisions, and our character, in turn, exercises more and more influence on the decisions we make. This applies to evil and also applies to love. With each choice you choose for love (or choose to do the right thing) the less choice for love (or righteousness) you have to make. And now love (and choosing right) becomes part of your nature.”
No comments:
Post a Comment