Dear Child of God,
It’s safe to say that when we read God’s Word that says we are born sinners and that we are not perfect that we immediately begin to shrug and wonder to ourselves; “ How is it even possible to start something I know I am destined to fail”.
We further wonder to ourselves; “Why even try. Is it worth it to spend my life failing and falling victim to my natural nature of sin?”. ”Am I actually able to conquer sin?”
Yes. The answer is yes it is possible, yes you are able to conquer sin, yes it is worth it and no you are not destined to fail.
As a Christian I have always been overwhelmed by the “impossibility” of living a sin free life. The mere thought of failing at it repeatedly made me turn in the opposite direction and become a part of the world.
Every time I chose to hand my life back to the Lord I faced the same plaguing thoughts of “impossibility” and by this overwhelming fear of failure I would always return to the ways of the world.
This continued for years until the end of last year. I am now pleased to tell you that this behavior has stopped and it has since then been 13 months that I have been living in Christ.
It was only at the end of last year that God revealed to me that there is a distinct difference between;
1. Practicing a life of sin.
2. Falling into sin.
By understanding the difference between these two, the idea of “impossibility” instantly changed to a belief of “possibility”.
God’s revelation to me had me overcome with joy and fulfillment. This is what I am going to share with you today.
Let us start with looking to the following 3 verses:
Hebrews 10v26: " For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins."
Please note the word "deliberately".
James 4v17: "So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin."
Please note the words "whoever knows".
1 John 3v9: "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him and he can not keep on sinning because he has been born of God.
Please note the phrase "makes a practice of sinning".
We are born human, imperfect and as sinners however God left us with His written Word aka: The bible. He promises us that the bible will be available to us until the end of our days.
In the bible we are told what God's laws, holy days and commandments are. We are told in over a 100 different verses about practicing sinning.
Knowing right from wrong is what serves as our conscience. God tells us in the old testament that He planted each person's conscience within them to naturally know right from wrong.
When we choose to deliberately sin, our conscience begins to sear and so our ability to determine what is right from wrong fades away.
We are definitely going to fall into sin within our lifetimes, this is a given!
God knows this and by the power and the gift of His Holy Spirit our Lord will prompt us to repent each and every time that we do fall into sin, by mistake.
But,
Choosing to practice a life of sin is the problem we need to keep conscious of every day.
Going back to the above 3 verses about sinning:
Let's put all the "noted" words and phrases together to identify what practicing sin could be summarized as:
"Whoever knows what is wrong and deliberately chooses to do what is wrong makes a practice of sin".
Child of God,
It is our nature to sin but It is our responsibility to conquer sin more and more each day. Only our Lord Jesus Christ lived completely sin free.
Everyone of us will fall into sin but when we know what is right and we CHOOSE to do what is wrong it is then that we are practicing sin. Being disobedient to God's laws, holy days and commandments is a deliberate decision we make to transgress and yes this too, is practicing sin.
God's goodness and mercy is eternal and all-forgiving.
By His goodness and mercy we are forgiven when we repent and change our ways from PRACTICING sin.
Let us remember however that John the Baptist turned people way from being baptized as he knew their evil nature and ways of sin were not changed and done away with.
When we accept Jesus Christ as our savior and hand our life over to His Lordship the Holy Spirit is bestowed upon us and God's seed abides within us leaving our conscience clear, renewed and restored. We are told we are renewed in Christ.
We are told that in Christ we are conquerors.
It is our responsibility in Christ to conquer sin, more and more each day.
Yes. The answer is yes it is possible WITH CHRIST, yes you are able to conquer sin THROUGH CHRIST, yes it is worth it IN CHRIST and no you are not destined to fail as CHRIST has conquered the enemy already.
We live a sin free life by choosing not to practice sin.
We live a sin free life by repenting as soon as the Holy Spirit alerts us that we’ve fallen into sin.
We live a sin free life by walking in Christ and following His guidance and teachings.
God bless you, Child of God.