As you come closer to God and you recognize sin, your job is to first resolve internally that you no longer want to sin. Sometimes God gives you a miracle, and in the process of humbling your heart, the sin falls away. However, other times He gives you time to figure out how you are going work on yourself to stop the sin. The question becomes, will you be intentional to remove the sin in your life. This is a continuous process, and every year we need to take time to look inside at areas we can work on so that we can grow closer to God.
The process of repentance starts when you confess your sin and decide to resolve in your heart never to commit the sin again. The fact is, no matter where you are in your walk with God, and the closer you come to Him, sin is always present. Paul said in Romans 7:24-25, “O wretched man that I am …”
Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me …”
The walk with God is a lifelong commitment.
In Leviticus 26:41 God says, “…if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity…” then God will remember His Covenant.
To make amends is to correct the mistake that one has made or fix a bad situation one has caused. It is a process, and it last a lifetime. It is not always easy to grow, and it takes commitment and desire to draw close to God.
James 4:17 says, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin”.
Sinful Inclination
Every one of us has an sinful inclination inside of us, and that is why sin is always crouching at our door. Its job is to hide understanding of God from us, and sin will pull us away from God. A good way to look at it is, if you work out with no resistance, are you really doing anything? No, not at all. That is the same principle with your walk with God; there has to be resistance to grow in order for the “seed” that is in you to produce more fruit.
In Romans 7:15-20 Paul explains that our sinful inclination (sinful nature) becomes the motivation for us to sin. From the beginning in Genesis 4:7 God commanded us to overcome it. He said “sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it”. God wants you to put effort into removing all your wrongdoings. What would it feel like if you signed up for an Ironman competition, and never put effort into preparing or actually running the course, and then received an award for it? Would it mean anything? Further, Jesus taught in Matthew 25:14–30 the wise steward would receive a reward based on the steward’s efforts and punishment for the lack of effort.
Our Responsibility
Our job is to be on guard against the sinful inclination. If you are not, you will most likely fail. For some people the evil inclination is desiring pornography, others anger, but whatever the sin is, God said we must rule over it. Paul said, “God will render to each one according to his works”. Jesus will be looking for people who know the truth, worked on their relationship by obeying God’s commandments (Matthew 7:23), and those who lived what they believed.
If you desire to know God more, you will by default keep His commandments because you are applying them in your life. As you grow closer to God, you will also see more sin, and be wiser in the way you deal with it. Much of our repentance starts with us being honest with ourselves, really honest, and trusting God to show us how to practically apply His Instructions in our life. That is what humbling ourself is – submitting to God’s ways in all things.
In reference to Leviticus 26:41, and as stated above, to make amends is to correct the mistake one has made, or fix a bad situation one has caused. What is a practical way to overcome and make amends for our sin? We are to abandon it, banish it from our thought, and resolve in our heart never to commit it again.
What if you have 5 or 6 sins you are dealing with? That could be a big job. First don’t beat yourself up! Be thankful God is allowing you to repent. As an example lets say, you have a lot of hatred towards someone, bad habits, stretch the truth all the time (lie), always looking at the opposite sex or same sex with thoughts that are sometimes uncontrollable, or you make your job an idol above everything else in your life. If that is you, then first understand that stopping sin is a process. If God has not delivered you from it, He is most likely going to use it to bring you closer to Him through it.
First, it is important to distinguish between the types of sin. Especially to understand what you are dealing with when working on a plan to overcome them. As you grow closer to God and learn His way, you find you need to be extra careful not to rebel against God because now you know what His will is.
David said in Psalm 51:3 “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.”
This is why we need to work on our repentance at least once a year.
Types of sins
1. Sin (shortcoming, misstep, or infraction against God’s commandments)
2. Transgression (which is rebelling against God)
3. Iniquity (when a person denies God, and knowingly disobeys Him)
Second, make a choice to stop sinning. Once you resolve to stop the sin, create a plan that allows you to be successful, one where you cannot fail. Start with small steps, something simple to work on which will eventually lead you to completely overcoming it. Maybe only work on one or two sins this year, and come back to the others when you overcome what you prioritized first.
Third, analyze what triggers you to sin, and then make arrangements that will help you not to do it. You can also create a system that will allow you to overcome it. As an example, if you are working on honoring your parents, then put specific things on the calendar that you can do to make sure you are honoring them such as having them over for dinner or calling them and checking in. Another example is if you are working on taking care of the poor, then sign up once a month at the food bank. There are many ways to be creative, you just have to really want to improve yourself.
Be Realistic
Lastly, understand that sin is always crouching at your door. Do not set unrealistic expectations on yourself that will cause you to fail, and if you have sin that God is requiring you to overcome, start with small steps that will lead to success.
Find out more about how to overcome sin.
Back to Day 11 | Continue to Day 13