“It is your evil that has separated you from your God. Your sins cause him to turn away from you, so he does not hear you.”
Isaiah 59:2 (NCV) Today, most cultures don’t think sin is ugly. In fact, many people think sin is fun! Think about media. TV shows, social media memes, and movies use sin for humor. This is Satan’s strategy: to get you to laugh at the same things that put Jesus on the cross. Satan disguises sin to make it look attractive, desirable, and fun. Rarely in media do you see the consequences of sin. If you want to know how ugly sin really is and the damage it does, look at Jesus bleeding on the cross. Jesus’ suffering shows you just how much it takes to pay for your sins. The cross shows the damage sin does. Sin has all sorts of consequences in your life! Here are just three of them. Sin alienates you from God. Why? Because God is holy, and you are not. Sin creates conflict and puts distance between you and God. Isaiah 59:2 says, “It is your evil that has separated you from your God. Your sins cause him to turn away from you, so he does not hear you” (NCV). Sin always leaves estrangement in its wake, even between you and God. Sin causes enormous amounts of stress in your life. One of the greatest sources of stress is unrecognized and unresolved guilt. King David said, “My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear” (Psalm 38:4 NIV). Holding on to sin takes an emotional toll. When you break God’s laws, it leads to worry, fear, guilt, and insecurity. You wouldn’t experience this if you always did things God’s way. But you don’t, and you can’t. This is the reality of sin. Sin condemns you. When you violate God’s laws, there’s always a penalty—in both self-condemnation and judgment from a righteous God. Psalm 7:11 says, “God is a righteous judge and always condemns the wicked” (GNT). You may think your biggest problem is a relationship conflict, health issue, or trouble finding a job. But the reality is, your biggest problem is that you’re at war with God. That’s why you’re so frustrated! That’s why you don’t sleep well. That’s why you’re stressed out. You weren’t made to live out of harmony with your Creator, who loves you. He made you, and he sent his Son to die for you. He wants you to be in harmony with him. Repent of your sin today—and every day—so that you can be at peace with God.
0 Comments
“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”
Psalm 119:105 (NIV) When you need to make a decision, the first and ideal test is this: “Is my decision in harmony with God’s Word?” You have to decide what’s going to be your ultimate authority in life. It really boils down to this choice: God’s Word or the world. Are you going to base your decisions on what God says or what other people say? If you base your life on popular opinion, you’re always going to be out of date, because it changes every day. What was “in” yesterday will be “out” today, and what’s “in” today will be “out” tomorrow. If you base your life on popular culture or opinion polls, you will struggle because you’re building on a shifting foundation! On the other hand, if you base your life on God’s Word, the truth never changes. Truth is always true. So if God says something was wrong 10,000 years ago, it was also wrong 500 years ago, it’s wrong today, and it will be wrong 1,000 years from today. I don’t care what the culture says or what is popular at the time. If God says it’s wrong, it’s wrong. It always has been, and it always will be. If God says it’s right, it will always be right. That is a solid foundation! God has set up the universe with certain laws—physical, moral, and spiritual. God built the universe around these laws because they’re all for your benefit. When you cooperate with the principles in this universe, you succeed. If you reject, disobey, ignore, and rebel against God’s principles, you’re the one who gets hurt. With all this in mind, you can be confident in your decision. If God says it’s okay, then you do it. If God says no, then you don’t do it. “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path” (Psalm 119:105 NIV). “Make no mistake about this: You can never make a fool out of God. Whatever you plant is what you’ll harvest.”
Galatians 6:7 (GW) You don’t plant apple seeds and get tomatoes. In the same way, you don’t plant bitterness and get love. You don’t plant criticism and then get encouragement from other people. Galatians 6:7 says, “Make no mistake about this: You can never make a fool out of God. Whatever you plant is what you’ll harvest” (GW). Whatever you plant is what you’ll harvest. If you plant in the soil of your sinful nature, you’ll harvest destruction. But if you plant in the soil of your spiritual nature, you’ll harvest everlasting life. God has said for thousands of years that our sins can affect future generations. For instance, when you’re angry and you lose your temper with your kids, you’re setting them up to lose their temper with their kids. Sins get perpetuated in families, possibly for multiple generations. Not only does it work relationally and environmentally but it also works physically. We now know your brain can actually be changed by repetitive behavior, for good or for bad. Everyone used to think the brain was pretty much set in stone by the time you were an adolescent. Now we know about brain plasticity and how your brain can continue to be molded for the rest of your life. That’s good to know! It means if your brain has been naturally molded toward depression or a quick temper or anxiety, it can change. But you’ve got to change the way you think. The Bible refers to this as repentance or changing your mind. You canchange your mind, and when you do, it changes the way you feel. And when you change the way you feel, it changes the way you act. Then, you plant in your spiritual nature and watch what amazing fruit God will reap in your life. “None of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone.”
Romans 14:7 (NIV) Sin may be secret, but it’s never private. It will either come out now, here on earth, or at Judgment Day, but it’s going to be known. Numbers 32:23 is one of the scariest verses in the Bible: “You may be sure that your sin will find you out” (NIV). Another reason why sin is never private is because everything you do, good or bad, affects other people—even if they don’t know what’s going on. If someone close to you stayed up all night doing some really immoral things and then saw you in the morning, you would notice something was off. You might not know what happened, but the result of their sin would be obvious in the way they behaved. Very few people could act as if nothing happened. It doesn’t even have to be some big sin you commit. It could be the sin of omission. If you have a regular quiet time with God and then go a few days without spending time in God’s presence, there’s probably going to be a difference in how you react to people and circumstances. That’s because when you’re not plugged in, you don’t have spiritual power to fight sin. The Bible says in Romans 14:7, “None of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone” (NIV). A lot of people will say, “What I do with my life is no one else’s business. As long as I’m not hurting anybody, why should anyone else care?” But you are hurting other people. God made us to be connected people, and what we do and say always has an effect on others. Sin affects you in ways you don’t even realize, and then your actions affect others. When you sin, it cuts you off from God’s power and keeps you from your potential. It limits the good you can do and the impact you could have. Isn’t it sad to think of what you and others are missing when you’re not at your God-given best? There is only one way to move past the sin that holds you back and hurts others: Confess it. “There will be more and more evil in the world, so most people will stop showing their love for each other.”
Matthew 24:12 (NCV) Someone once asked Jesus, “What’s the most important command in Scripture?” He replied, “There are two of them: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” If those are God’s two most important commands, then their opposite—not loving God and not loving your neighbor—is sin. Sin is always unloving. Matthew 24:12 says, “There will be more and more evil in the world, so most people will stop showing their love for each other” (NCV). Have you noticed that today? People in general have become more critical, less civil, and ruder than ever. Why? Because as sin increases, love decreases. Sin is unhelpful, unhealthy, unfair, unwise, untruthful—and it is always selfish. We often tell ourselves we’re doing something for the benefit of others when we’re really doing it for our own benefit. The Bible says, “Wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind” (James 3:16 NLT). At the root of every sin is self-centeredness. Why are you here on earth? God did not make you to live for yourself. You were made for something far bigger than that. You were made by God and for God, and until you understand and believe that, life’s never going to make sense. God didn’t create you so you could center your life on yourself and push other people to the side. You were made to know God, enjoy him, have a friendship with him, serve him, and center your life on him. Whatever you build your life around is your god, whether it’s your boat or your business or a sport or another person. God wants you to center your life on him, but sin will always put the focus back on you. Choose love. Where love is abundant, selfishness will not grow. |
AuthorTaken from Daily Hope by Rick Warren. Categories
All
Archives
July 2024
|