This past semester in my church small group, we talked about
the sinfulness of man and our desperate need for Christ. Although this statement isn’t new at all, I
feel like over the many years of hearing this in church, it somehow lost its
weight and meaning in my heart. As we
live in the world, we become desensitized to sin and even try to fool ourselves
into thinking it is okay. Worse comes to worse, we will repent of it later and
“make it right with God’ when we are old and closer to death. Among many other issues with this mentality,
the greatest is that we completely discount the seriousness of sin in our
lives. The theme that kept appearing as
I studied the Bible last semester was the Holiness of God. Although we definitely serve a gracious Lord
who sent his son to die for our sins and save us, we must realize that if we
are continuing to hold onto sin in our lives, we can not grow and deepen our
relationship with this same sovereign Lord who hates sin.
The beauty
is that we serve this awesome God who is a master potter. There is no blemish in the clay he cannot
fix, we simply must be willing to come and sit before him and allow him to take
over completely. This sounds so easy,
but to be completely transparent, this past semester I found myself fighting
this very thing with every bit of my flesh. I imagine that to God, I looked
like a two year old throwing a ridiculous tantrum- you know the kind where the
kid is kicking on the floor, seriously upset and the parent just stares and
holds back a laughs because the whole thing is actually rather funny. I knew
exactly what the sin was in my life and I knew what it took to get rid of
it. The problem with sin is that is so
appealing. It comes in a nice pretty box
wrapped and topped with a bow. In concept it seems wonderful BUT this is completely a LIE!
In reality,
sin is kind of like an as-seen-on-TV gift.
It has a wonderful 15 minute infomercial explaining its too good to be
true qualities for sale at the amazingly low price of $19.99. I know all about these infomercials. My dad
likes these things a lot, but he also likes really odd trinkets that seem to
serve no purpose. He has even purchased
several of these items and given them as gifts. [I know because I was the lucky
recipient of a spider shaped head massager last Christmas- I know you’re
jealous now] I hate to burst anyone’s bubble but in all honesty: these items
never work! If you stop and think about
it, the maker of them must be pretty desperate to get rid of them if he invests
that much energy and money into a commercial to get them off his hands. Sin is much like these advertised items. No matter how pretty of a box it comes in,
the contents are still cheap, poorly constructed, and never live up to their
expectations. We consumer-minded people
buy perfectly into Satan’s lies and the world’s.
Sadly,
after three days and many attempts, we realize the knife the Sham Wow guy swore
would cut through steal wont even slice an apple and we are left having to face
the reality of our disillusionment and twenty bucks poorer. Honestly, I find myself at times like the
consumer who has just purchased the cheap item and Im still refusing to admit
defeat and throw it away. I still try to
convince myself that if I just give it one more chance, then it will be worth
that shipping and handling fee. In these
moments, deep down, I know that I am wrong in so many ways, but my pride and
desire for autonomy is unwilling to let go and I absolutely hate this about
myself. The truth is that to walk with
the Lord, we HAVE to give this sin over to Him.
We have to approach the throne with confidence and declare that although
this sin is appealing, we desire Him and want Him more than we want this sin. Thankfully, we serve a relentless, patient,
and wonderful God who lavishes us with his Love and mercy and forgives our sin
when we turn to him with a heart full of repentance.
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