Sin May Seem Inevitable, But Should Never Be Acceptable

My Utmost For His Highest

Rise, let us be going. —Matthew 26:46

 

“In the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples went to sleep when they should have stayed awake, and once they realized what they had done it produced despair. The sense of having done something irreversible tends to make us despair. We say, “Well, it’s all over and ruined now; what’s the point in trying anymore.” If we think this kind of despair is an exception, we are mistaken. It is a very ordinary human experience. Whenever we realize we have not taken advantage of a magnificent opportunity, we are apt to sink into despair. […] We will have times of despair caused by real events in our lives, and we will be unable to lift ourselves out of them. […]  Never let the sense of past failure defeat your next step.”  CHAMBERS

 

How do you feel when you sin?  Frustrated with yourself?  You find yourself living out the struggle that Paul describes in Romans 7:18-19.  “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.”  It seems that sin is lurking at the door of my heart.  How can it be that I continue to sin when I have been redeemed.  It is a mystery, but God has a purpose in allowing it.  We need a redeemer.  Not just to the point of salvation, but forever.  Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. (John 14:6)  That was, is, and always will be true.  A preacher said for a Christian, life on earth is the worst hell we will ever know.  For the lost, life on earth is the best heaven they will ever know.  We live in a sinful world and will be tempted to sin and, I believe, will sin, until the day we pass.  Should our sin cause us to despair? Only to the point that we remember that we have this treasure in jars of clay. (2 Corinthians 4:7-9)  Should we just accept the fact that we will continue to sin?  No!  We should never find our sin acceptable or excusable. Each time we must go to the throne of grace and be cleansed from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) Your struggle with sin is a spiritual battle. We will always need Jesus … we will always need the Spirit … to live this new life.  ELGIN

 

Charley Elgin