This morning I’m thinking about besetting sins. These are those habitual acts of disobedience that seemingly are impossible to stop. Sometimes I do something, confess it as sin, then find myself committing the same sin again and again.
The Bible promises that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Why then do I keep repeating the thing when God says my confession results in cleansing?
For a long time I’ve thought the reason is that I haven’t got to the bottom of it. I will confess an action, but didn’t recognize the attitude behind the action. I will confess an attitude, but not go deeply enough to confess my motivation for it, and it is in the area of motivation where I make the most excuses.
My Logos Bible study software has many books and in searching for besetting sins, I found one called Love to Eat, Hate to Eat by Elyse Fitzpatrick. It is about eating disorders and has a great section on the usual excuses made for sin. Here is the list:
My Mama Made Me Do It. This is blaming childhood experiences and how they shaped me. It is often used by criminals who go for softer sentences by claiming they were raised in a dysfunctional home. Christians use this excuse when we feel trapped by our past.
My Computer Has a Virus. This worldly idea says we are mere machines that work on a GIGO principle. Fitzpatrick’s book calls it the carrot-and-stick theory. A donkey will always pull the wagon if the carrot (reward) is big enough (positive reinforcement) or if the stick (punishment) is substantial enough (negative reinforcement). Mixed that with spiritual truth and I think I could conquer sin if I just put my focus on the reward. It does not work.
Help Me, Doctor, I Think I’m Sick. With eating disorders, some say their problems are genetic, or food allergies, or certain chemicals in the brain. While this might be so, the Bible never allows such excuses for disobeying God.
Feel the Force Within You. The book says, “Even some Christians believe that they need to discover their ‘resident inner power’ and then clear the obstructions to this power through visualization, positive declarations, and energy direction.” If I am struggling with some unwanted behavior, it is because I’m “not listening to my inner guidance, and must change my energy through positive declarations.” This is not dependance on God, but idolatry.
The Devil Made Me Do It. Some Christians also believe that besetting sins are directly caused by spirits or demons. This is refusing to take responsibility for sin. It also is refusing to acknowledge that Christ conquered Satan’s power and that He saves us from all sin.
I Don’t Love Myself Enough. The idea here is that if I could just learn to love and accept myself then I would not punish or reward myself in sinful ways. It says I can do this by my own power, another form of idolatry.
It’s Not My Fault. “You are not responsible for your behavior,” is a strong manifesto in our society. But the Bible teaches that one day, “each one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12). I cannot use that excuse either.
The verse that prompted this search was from Spurgeon’s devotional for today. He used it to show that David confessed his sin of murder without making excuses.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. (Psalm 51:14)
He called his sin exactly what it was and when he did that, he had grounds to ask God to forgive and cleanse him. With that, I realize that some of my own sin has not been overcome because I’ve failed to recognize and confess their root motivation, or have made excuses like some of those listed in the book about eating disorders.
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Lord, You have opened my eyes again. You remind me that all sin is about inner desires. I want something (even legitimate things) but those desires get out of control as I try to fulfill them in the wrong way. It is just as James 1:14 says, “Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.”
These days, lust is associated with sex, but in the Bible lust refers to any strong desire. It can be for food, which is a good thing until it gets out of control and becomes a lust to overeat. It can be a desire to help another person, another good thing until it gets out of control and becomes meddling where I’m not helping at all. It can also be a desire for a repeat blessing, yet instead of waiting on You for that, I try to “make it happen” and wind up disobeying You.
This gives me a great deal to think about and pray about. Thank You. Keep me on the right track. Help me recognize the bottom line when I sin and confess my sin. I know that confession and the blood of Christ wash sin away. I also know that obedience keeps it from coming back.
Last week I had a short visit with an old friend. She once loved Jesus with all her heart and was determined to follow Him. However, she has changed. She told me she was about to do something “bad” and went on to describe her far-from-biblical plan. The bottom line was that the world’s way of doing things had more appeal to her than following the way of Jesus.
Even though Jesus Christ ate and drank with sinners, He was separate from the world, sanctified, set apart for God and not like us in our sin or temporary desires. He had eternity in mind, but was despised for this, rejected and abused because of His godly perspective and lifestyle.
The Bible challenges me to be like Jesus. It also says that if I live a godly life, separate from the world and dedicated to serving Him and not myself, I will suffer as He did.
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:12–13)
This set-apart life is not appealing. For one thing, it can be lonely and for Jesus, it had to be worse than any loneliness I’ll ever experience. His own disciples did not understand Him and near the end of His life, they ran away rather than stick by Him.
The disciples did come back, to their credit. As the above verse says, the alternative is to go from bad to worse. They could have become deceivers, but remained true to His teaching because of their love for Him. I want to be in that number.
On the other hand, those who crucified Him were oblivious to His innocence and did not know what they were doing. They had no idea who He was or what He offered them. Yet even as they put Him to death, they unwittingly fulfilled the foreshadowing of the sacrificial law that pointed to their Messiah.
For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. (Hebrews 13:11–14)
Just as the sacrificial animals were disposed of outside the city, Jesus died alone and apart from the people He came to save. He was treated as worse than garbage, yet willingly accepted this separation for He knew the real basis for it. He was so pure that they could not bear His presence.
Jesus asks me, based on what He has done, to separate myself from the world (in attitude, not in body). I am not to care about the things that others care about. I am not to be preoccupied with the temporal stuff of this life either. This includes not only sin, but the ordinary activities of life. They are passing away, yet those who do the will of God live forever. My perspective is to be eternal.
However, as I try to do that, I need His grace. This world is a place of ridicule and reproach. Its residents accuse Christians of believing fairy tales, being brainwashed, and having lost our senses. In their minds, we are garbage to be tossed rather than earthen vessels sent from God containing a great treasure for them.
The world cannot understand anyone whose goal is to be like Christ. Everyone else looks out for themselves, builds their own empire, and lives in a kingdom of bigger, better, more. On the other hand, Jesus bids me to consider others more important than myself. I’m charged to build His kingdom without becoming entangled in the affairs of this world.
This means cost-counting, for it is costly. I will be ostracized, lonely, misunderstood and the brunt of ill treatment.
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Lord, this sounds more like bad news than the good news of the gospel. However, the alternatives are plain. If I do not walk with You, then I will walk with the world. There is no middle. Without You, I will become me-centered (even worse than I am), without concern for others and without concern for eternal matters. I will go from bad to worse, even believing lies and telling them. I will be preoccupied with those things that do not last.
I might be able to slide into that worldly attitude without a lot of protest, but one thing I cannot do is become separated from You. I could not bear it. You were taken outside the camp — therefore I must be taken (or go willingly) outside the camp. You were persecuted — I must stay with You and be persecuted too.
You did all this “for the joy set before” You and I understand that. Yet, by the miracle of Your grace, when I am “outside the camp” with You, Your joy is never something set off in the distance. Instead, You put joy in my heart every moment, even in the moments of greatest need. You amaze me with joy!
The world does not understand this either. They cannot see or know the blessed joy of the Lord, because they do not see or know You. I pray that You will bring those without You from the darkness in this world to the bright and glorious light of being outside the camp with You.
For years, certain prayers have gone unanswered even though they are “in God’s will” and not selfish, or so I’ve thought.
Today, Spurgeon talks about humility. He says that God always blesses a humble spirit. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3) and my devotional adds, “heaven with all its riches and treasures.” Certainly this describes a life of answered prayer and of the honor that God bestows on those who are humble of spirit.
The devotional also points to verses that spell it out plainly; humility comes before honor. I cannot expect God to hear me when my heart is full of pride.
The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor. (Proverbs 15:33)
I’ve connected my unanswered prayers to pride, but not like the Lord brings it home today. One sentence in today’s reading clearly shows me why He holds back the blessings that I pray for. Before getting to that one sentence, the Lord set me up with several reminders.
First He says that I’m to empty my heart of self and let God fill it with love. While I love the people that I pray for, some aspects of those prayers are for me. I know that because of the way I talk to God about them and my assumptions for why He has not done anything. I actually apologize for not doing my job right — as if God is limited to my performance. I bemoan my own inadequacies as if I could do what only He can do. From that, I realize that if He did what I ask, I would probably take some credit for it.
Second, He says if I really want close communion with Him and want Him to answer my prayers, then I need to remember what He says about my attitude: “This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My word” (Isaiah 66:2). My pride, even a smidgen of it, can stand between me and my audience with God. Much of the time I have far more than a smidgen.
Then God uses this sentence to tell me the reason why He is not answering certain prayers. “If you do not get a blessing, it is because it is not safe for you to have one.”
Oh, my. This hits home. The hard reality is this truth: If my heavenly Father were to let my proud spirit win a victory in His holy war, I would pilfer the crown for myself. Then, when I meet with a fresh enemy, I would certainly fall. God keeps me in this state of not seeing a “yes” answer to my prayers — for my own safety. I cannot handle the answer.
Spurgeon adds that when a person is sincerely humble and “never ventures to touch so much as a grain of praise, there is scarcely any limit to what God will do for that person.” Humility makes us ready to be blessed and equips us to deal efficiently with all issues of life for it causes us to rely totally on the only One who can give us all that we need.
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Now what do I say to You about this? I know and abhor my pride. I know that my heart would swell with it should You do some of the things I ask. This is a mockery of grace. Why should I feel proud when it is You alone who is responsible for blessing others, blessing me, even bestowing honor? I earn or deserve none of it.
Oh Lord, this battle against pride also puts my focus on me. Only You can save me from self-focus, self-righteousness, and the insidious ruin of thinking of myself too much and too often and more highly than I ought. You tell me that I have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), obviously because my own is corrupt. Lift my thoughts to You and put my pride where it belongs.
One person suggested that the newness and excitement wear off because we get taken up with the things of this world. Spurgeon agrees. He illustrates by pointing to a mountainous area of Europe. He says many people who live in the valleys are deformed. They have a sickly appearance because of the miasma in the atmosphere. The air is stagnant, unwholesome and oppressive. However, a hardier group of people live on the mountain. They breathe the clear fresh air blowing from the Alpine summits.
Spurgeon compares this to Christians. Those who continually dwell in the valley of this world with its “marshes and the fever mists” would do well to rise above that oppressive stuff and “inhale the bracing element” high on the hills. This is a metaphor for spending time with God where the focus is on the rare and pure air of eternal matters.
Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. (Isaiah 2:3)
Chinese missionary and martyr, Watchman Nee was asked about being a Christian. He said it was like having two dogs fighting inside of him. The winner was the one that he fed the most. Getting away from the cares of this life to spend quality time with Jesus is feeding a winner. Our spirits need spiritual nourishment to thrive and live victoriously.
Yesterday I spoke with a neighbor. A few years ago she made a commitment to Christ. However, she has been attending a mainline church where the Bible is not studied. I was appalled to hear her doctrinal deterioration. She once had a firm and certain knowledge what a person must do to be saved. She knew that Christ is the way, the truth and the life, and that no one can come to God except through Him. (John 14:6)
Now she is unsure of many things. She says she cannot judge how people get to heaven, thinks maybe repentance is necessary but hedges, and doubts whether a person needs new life in Christ to become a Christian. What happened? It appears she has stayed too long in the valley.
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Lord, some mornings I am tempted to bypass devotions and get on with the day. My to-do list is long, or I’ve this nagging notion that You will be silent and I will be wasting my time reading Your Word. Forgive me for thinking that I can survive in the miasma, and that it will not affect my spiritual well-being. I need time with You. Otherwise, I will not know Your ways or walk in Your paths. I know myself and my tendency to move downward. I need You to always draw me to the heights. I need to spend time basking in the glory of who You are. Save me from those things of earth that pull me down into spiritual neglect and decline, and keep my focus on things above and on You.
Friday’s funeral was blessed. Even those who do not know Jesus were comforted by the clear and appealing gospel message presented by a pastor we barely knew. He told those present that their abhorrence of death could be overcome by a relationship with the Savior.
Spurgeon’s verse for today gives me pause. If anything was missing or at least not emphasized on Friday, it was this reality.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned — every one — to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)
Perhaps funerals are not the best place to talk about sin. People are grieving a loss as well as brought face to face with their own mortality. Emotions run deep. Any words that sound like “you are a sinner” throw a barricade in front of divine comfort. However, sin actually is the great barricade between us and God. How can God comfort anyone if sin stands between them and Him?
This is where the grace of God comes in. Sometimes He comforts anyway. One person told us that she listened to every word spoken and every word in the hymns. The heavy burden of grief was lifted from her shoulders. Even though she has rejected God for many years and He did not have to do that, He did.
She was not the only “sinner” at the funeral. This verse is inclusive. All of us have turned from God’s way to our own. This is even the definition of sin. We are all guilty before God.
The verse is also personal in that everyone turns to his own way. We each have a particular direction where that turning takes us. My sin is not like the sin of others. We each have a distinctive self-determination that takes us away from God.
The good news is here though, even in the same sentence as the bad news. Yes, we are all like sheep and have each turned from God to do our own thing, but the Father has put all that sin on the Son. Jesus experienced the weight of all our sin and died for all of us. He took our guilt and suffered our penalty so we can be forgiven and have eternal life. This is grace.
Friday, a portion of grace was automatic. That is, those who do not believe experienced a measure of God’s comfort in their sorrow. They did nothing to earn or deserve this comfort; God just gave it.
Yet the fullness of grace that includes forgiveness of sin and the sure promise eternal life is not automatic. This grace is not bestowed on everyone, regardless. It comes without earning it or deserving it (who could?), yet it must be received. He never forces it on those who push Him away.
The pastor used the words “it must be received.” I wondered if the hearers needed an explanation. How do you receive forgiveness and eternal life? Or was this also made plain by the Holy Spirit? Did He open hearts to show that the grace of God is like any gift?
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Father, we miss Mom, yet have assurance that we will see her again. She knew your grace and believed that You died for her. Today my prayer is for those who heard on Friday about grace, but have not yet received what they heard or Your gift offered to them. Open their hearts to their need. Help them see that sin separates them from You, but You have already offered a way to have victory over sin. It isn’t in brushing it aside, but in sending Jesus to suffer the penalty that we deserved. It is in asking for and receiving forgiveness. It is in inviting Jesus into our hearts, to share our lives and to show us the way to heaven. Because He lives forever, we can also. Eternal life is Christ and Christ is Your gift to us.
The first sins after than initial eating of the forbidden fruit was self-defense and blame-shifting. When God asked about what he had done, Adam said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. . . . The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:10–12)
Adam defended himself. Also, it is often said that he blamed Eve, but that phrase “You gave to be with me” showed that he blamed God for his sin. While this seems ludicrous, the New Testament has to remind us that we tend to do this:
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:13–15)
In the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about the ways that I blame God. It seems that each time I complain, given that I believe God is sovereign, then I am actually blaming God’s providence for the circumstances that I do not want or like. My mother used to say, “Well, we must need this or we would not be getting it.” These words were her way of trying to remind the family to be thankful rather than complain.
It is easier to be thankful for the good stuff. For instance, yesterday funeral service for my mother-in-law was a surprise blessing. The music, the message, the brief eulogy all worked together (evidence of the Holy Spirit who alone can produce such unity). Even the most distressed mourners were amazed at the blessing and the peace that came to their hearts. We can easily thank God for that and events like that.
However, this morning we looked out our hotel room window to a spring snowstorm. This is nasty weather for the six-hour drive home. Can I thank God for events like this? Or do I offer verbal expression to how much I do not like what is happening outside?
The Bible says that Jesus was tempted in every way that we are tempted but did not sin. Surely this temptation to defend Himself and blame His Father would have been one of those ‘all’ points. One example where such temptation might have occurred was just before His crucifixion.
Then Pilate said to Him, “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?” But He gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed. (Matthew 27:13–14)
Jesus could have said, “My Father put me here to bear the sins of the world, so I must do that, no matter how nasty they are or how many lies they tell about me.”
Those would have been legitimate words; they were true. Out of His mouth they could have been uttered without a trace of resentment. Yet He knew our minds. Had He said that, I might have been the first one to use such a response to justify my responses to hardships, even those experienced when I obey God. They are what some called a “hidden brag” because saying something like this is self-serving. It says ‘look at me’ and even ‘poor me’ rather than resisting the temptation to make obedience about me instead of a glory to God.
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The Bible says that no one ever spoke like Jesus spoke. Spurgeon points out that no one was ever silent like Jesus either. Lord, I could take a few lessons in this. I’ve always been quick to defend myself when accused or even misunderstood, and quick to blame others, even You, when things do not go the way that I want them to. This makes life all about me, which is the very essence of sin. You created me to bring You glory. To do this, many times I don’t need to talk, but to simply shut up.
As I went to bed, scrimshaw came to mind. I acquired a few pieces in Alaska and knew that this word means “whiling away your idle time” or even wasting time. The name originated back in the days when sailors on whaling ships had nothing better to do than carve pictures in whale bone.
For me, this was a challenge. If sailors could “waste” their time producing works of art, then surely my time could be put to something more productive than topping my previous score in a computer game.
When I got up yesterday morning, I pasted a note on my computer monitor with the word SCRIMSHAW on it, and removed the games from my computer. I’m not sure what I will do instead, but a fine piece of art seems like a better way to “waste” time during those evenings when I have some time to waste. As usual, God backs up this decision with today’s devotional reading.
Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that He may come and rain righteousness upon you. (Hosea 10:12)
Fallow ground is a farming term for land that is not in production. In this verse, God tells His people to break it up and plant good things that will produce a crop characterized by steadfast love.
Searching for God in prayer and worship motivates this activity. The word “seek” can also mean “to frequent a place.” All this suggests to me that being productive in a loving and righteous manner includes time with God where He rains His righteousness on me and makes good things grow in my life.
These are not new thoughts. I know that the Lord is my source for all good things. I also know that spending time with Him is important toward experiencing those good things. He is telling me that this does not stop at the end of the day when chores are done and I’ve some time to spare. Instead of fiddling it away, He wants me to find out from Him a better way to use it.
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Lord, what better time of day to seek You than in the evening when I am too tired to work, but it is too early to go to bed. Instead of wasting those hours with television, computer games or anything like that, I can rediscover new ways where Your “strength is perfected in weakness.” I am choosing to sow and reap as You say, but first need more than a sprinkle of Your righteousness. With such a bad habit, I no doubt need a downpour that will wash away the old and bring out new life that will produce a crop. Help me break up this fallow ground and allow You to plant in it (and make grow) whatever will please and glorify You.
(Image source)
