\\sin

I don’t quite understand why we sin the way we do. We do the same things over and over knowing we are doing something wrong, something we have no business doing, but that never stops us. Then we repent as though God should be grateful to even hear from us. We sin and hope the grace doesn’t run out, pray that we are not wasting our breath to a God that’s tired of hearing how sorry we are that we’ve messed up yet again. Faith keeps us holding on the belief that no matter how badly we behave, we are never too far, amazingly we never are. But why, if we truly love God, would we hurt him by intentionally sinning and then repenting as though we didn’t know what we did was wrong. We get as close to the line as we can without crossing it, pointing at it and saying “Look God, I’m not crossing any lines!” Do you think he cares about the line between sinning and kind of almost sinning? Not so much. He only looks at our hearts and the motivation behind our actions.

Guilt comes with sin, we always feel bad after we do. There’s a reason we feel heavy in our hearts, it’s because we were not created to sin. We were created to live in harmony with God, to be close, to feel His heartbeat and know how he loves us. We were not created to sin because sin separates us from God; and we were created to be close to Him. Sin places a gap between Him and us, a gap that was never supposed to exist. He never intended us to be removed from His love, His grace.

So then Jesus came to this earth and died for our sins because He loves us, He wanted to bridge that gap and bring us back to Him. Does that mean that we can exploit forgiveness? Does that give us the right to test grace? I once heard grace described not as the forgiveness of God after we sin, that is mercy, but rather the supernatural ability to refrain from sinning. Grace is God’s way of saying “I know you’re human and you will make mistakes, but let me help you avoid some of those mistakes, and the pain and regret, with grace.” Mercy is God’s way of saying “I know you’re human, and you made a mistake, but I still love you.”

His love is so deep and so infinite we cannot comprehend it, it bridges all gaps and rights all wrongs. And because of that, we take advantage of it as though we deserve it. We make these excuses and comparisons “Well, I mean, at least I didn’t kill anybody. I know I sinned but was it really THAT bad?” And I think that probably breaks God’s heart more than anything. Take responsibility. Repent. Turn away from sin and start pursuing God’s grace. Love God more than your flesh and your desires. The truth is, we can make an excuse for anything, and we can justify anything in our minds, but it’s your heart that condemns you.

There is a great scripture in Ephesians (4:28) that I love it says “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.” When you steal you are taking away from someone, when you work so that you may bless others you are giving something back. When you are sinning, whether it be stealing or something else, you are doing something completely selfish. It’s useless to stop sinning and sit idly, you have to replace the sin with something positive and good, something to benefit someone other than yourself. You have to counter act the negative behavior and the destructive patterns with positive actions. This is a practical, easy way to achieve your personal goals. Plus, giving back doesn’t feel too bad either.