Too often, we hang on to sinful desires, because they fill a need in our life. A cherished activity, a strong addiction, a little deviation from God’s Word, etc. fill an essential place in our soul, and we cannot let the sin go (Romans 7). We rationalize it, and we decide that God will not mind.
What we do not realize is that sins cripple our spiritual growth. They turn into a backpack filled with clutter that gets heavier with each passing year. If we are truly Born Again, God’s conviction will continually probe the recesses of our soul and spirit, attempting to set us free from the ball-and-chain of iniquity.
We may have emotional weights that we add to our backpack. Maybe someone wounded us irrevocably, and we refuse to forgive them. We do not want to set them free from the consequences of their behavior toward us. However, forgiveness frees us, not them. God will still hold them accountable for what they did to us.
God keeps track of every tear that their behavior wrung from our eyes. He records all of our sorrows and grief (Psalm 56:8). It is our job to forgive the slight or deep trauma, so that God can forgive us, and to turn these people over to God for His judgment (Matthew 6:14-15; Romans 12:19).
We were crucified with Christ, and He paid for our guilt (Romans 6:6). God uses trials to bring us freedom from troublesome, habitual sins. He creates beauty from the ashes of our life, gives us the oil of joy in exchange for our mourning, and provides us with the garment of praise for the demonic spirit of heaviness (Isaiah 61:1-3).
Our comfort and happiness in this life is not a guarantee from God, because He is more interested in our holiness than in our happiness, although His joy is always ours for the taking. He rehabilitates our character and habits by the sanctifying work of His Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:11). We are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Prayer:
Father God, as Your Spirit sanctifies our soul, we see more of the nature and divinity of Christ in us than ever before (2 Peter 1:4). Over the years, You increase our spiritual maturity, by changing our character flaws by the nurture of Your Spirit within us. You strengthen our inner being (Ephesians 3:16) in order for us to humble our self and to respond to Your conviction in our soul.
We want to live in a body that is filled through our entire being with all of Your fullness, so that we may have the richest measure of Your presence and become a body entirely filled with You (Ephesians 3:16-19, Amplified Bible). This will enable us to withstand the fiery trials that threaten to overwhelm us, and it will create a clean heart in us (Psalm 51:10).
Thought for the Day:
Once we learn to love the unlovable, to have patience with the irritating, and to help bear the burden of the oppressed, we are better able to share the love of God with them, with the same measure that He gives it to us, and we win another soul with which we can share in God’s Kingdom together for eternity.
- 2 Cor 1:4; 1 Cor 6:9-11
