If you think about it, what if God searched you today? What would He find? Would He find you doing the things that are pleasing to Him or fulfilling your own selfish desires? God wants us to be cleansed and free from the constraints of sin but we often find ourselves doing and saying things that keep us tied to sins darkness. To remain in right standing with God and to continue to have uninterrupted fellowship with Him, we must become even more familiar with both conviction and having a heart of true repentance. Daily our brothers and sisters wrestle with private issues that make them run away from the presence of God, and instead of seeking help from the one who can deliver them and set them free, they choose to hide.

Truth is, the moment of repentance often comes at the time of sins exposure, and when you abuse the grace that God has given you, to continue living a lifestyle of sin, you are deciding to forfeit God’s peace in exchange for sin’s shame.

To mentally distance one’s self from the activity of sin, makes it that much easier to commit the sin in the first place. You’re not thinking about how it’s affecting you or others but only what it’s doing for you at the time. The denial of sin’s effects in your life comes when you don’t see the sin as a very real problem. Believe it or not, when we choose to engage in certain things that we know are not healthy for our spiritual growth, we rob ourselves from experiencing the true freedom and joy God’s provided for us to have. However, what we don’t expect along our journey is to unintentionally bind ourselves to the strongholds of sin.

Jesus, understanding our human nature, made a way for us to be redeemed and forgiven and while I was in prayer about this topic the Holy Spirit said something to me that I will share with you. He said,

“IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT THAT THE POWER OF SIN FOUND YOU AT A YOUNG AGE.”

Let that sink in for a second…

We often carry so much shame within ourselves and it causes us to have an ill reflection of how God actually sees us. Yes, there have been experiences that we have all faced at some point or another, that if exposed would crush us out of pure embarrassment. (It’s like if we all went to heaven and God had a private screening of everything we’ve ever done in our lives, I think we all would be appalled by our own actions and those of others. We would judge and distance ourselves, and cause more pain than actually heal wounds.)

Really, a lot of us get saved in our teenage years, some earlier on, but understand that sins presence is already there at our beginning and often there isn’t anyone readily available to help us through these stages of our lives.

We face problems we were not equipped to handle. We’re tested with temptations that are beyond our level of understanding. We experience pains that change our outlook on life and as a result, we find ourselves stepping into sin’s realm, and our purity slowly being stripped away. Our innocence being lost.

 

Romans 6:11 AMPC states “Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.”

1 Peter 1:13-15 ESV “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.”

1 John 1:6-7 ESV “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

 

When I think of this scripture, it really brings to light the grace that the Father has upon us.

“Grace is not simply leniency when we have sinned. Grace is the enabling gift of God not to sin. Grace Is Power, Not Just Pardon.” – John Piper

His gift of grace made a way for us to have power, through Jesus, to break the bondage of sin in our lives.

If you think about the effects of sin it will make you sweat, shake, yearn for, crave and even mindlessly pursue after it in attempt to make you yield to it, instead of yielding to God. Sin turns what God made to be good and pleasant to corrupt and wicked. Sin doesn’t discriminate, it will find you at any age. It doesn’t care who you are, it will find you just the same. But, the way to combat it is not by letting it overtake you but by dying to its command to obey it. Sin will say jump and we would say “how high”, that’s not what God’s power was given to us for.

The battle between the flesh and spirit, is in essence, the place where you decide who has control over your life, and in order for things to change, we must allow the Holy Spirit to convict us. His conviction can be overwhelming, but when God chooses to speak and correct us, He will come in both love and judgment. He’s not going to point you out and shame you in front of others (people might do that) but He has the tendency to speak to us in private and show us the things that need to be laid down.

Being perfect is not required. Acting religious and holier than thou, while producing artificial works, isn’t pleasing to God. What He wants is a vessel that is willing to be upfront and honest with Him about every area of their life, holding nothing back, but humbly laying it all down before His feet.

Always remember that God still loves you even when you sin. You have been redeemed, so don’t continue reliving specific moments in your life in guilt, sorrow and despair because Jesus lifted that burden when He died on the cross and set you free!

I understand that this a very heavy topic, one that you may not have expected to be introduced to, but I want you to be able to live a life where you aren’t enslaved to the constraints of sin.

Psalms 51:10-12 ESV states “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”

Let’s choose to begin again and not give God vain worship.

Let’s honor Him with our whole being and choose to reflect God’s kingdom well.

As His beloved, He cares about everything that concerns us and our sin is His concern. Furthermore, His business. So don’t harden your hearts, but instead trust that God sees your struggles and will correct you, comfort you and sustain you.

Be blessed, encouraged and stay pressed towards seeking out God’s glory through your life!!