GOD. YOUTH. TRUTH.

Change doesn’t come over night. It amazes me how often people expect to change their life in a few days without any struggle or pain. Change is inevitable, and it seems more common that negative change can happen slowly over time without us being aware of the changes that are happening. Small incremental changes lead to large life changing events that can alter the course of our life. Sin has a way of working its way into our life and making small incremental changes that force our perception of that sin to become an attitude of acceptance. Small sins over time lead to life changing events that can alter the course of our lives.

                Why do we believe that sin will no longer be alluring to us when we become new babes in Christ? We have unintentionally sold the myth to ourselves that when we put on Christ in baptism that sin has no further allure to us and the sins that were a part of our daily life just completely disappear. We inadvertently convince new converts that sin is a switch that can just be turned on an off. This myth creates a sense of self doubt in the heart of the new believer who wants to please God so very much. The fact is that sin is still a part of the life of the believer who places themselves in the arms of God, and that it takes time and maturity to overcome the sins that plague the heart of the believer.

                Repentance is the “turning away from” of any action. It has taken our repetition of sin to ingrain it deep into our life. We cannot expect it to magically go away and not be a imminent temptation to us any more. I’m not condoning the continually sinning of an individual (Rom. 6:1-2), but we must admit that there will be a struggle in undoing the damage that sin has ravaged on our lives. The tangled web of heartache that sin creates must be unwound, and the new believer must know that sin is still a present danger and temptation in their life. We can no longer carry on the myth that temptation and sin automatically disappear because through it we are creating a generation of people who feel inadequate to serve God due to their struggle with sin. God sent Christ to die for sin, to bring close those who choose to serve him, and to empower those people to serve God openly. Let us not hinder the work of God through the perpetuation of a myth that steals the spirit of God’s people.