Day 2342 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.
Acts 17:30 NIV
One of the biggest problems with sin is that it seems like we get away with it. We don't face any immediate consequences. So we think that we can do anything we want without having to worry about getting in trouble. What makes it especially dangerous is that many sins are personal. They're things that we do without anyone else seeing them or knowing what we've done. So we get it in our minds that since nobody sees what we've done then there's no way that we're going to be confronted about it. There's no way that we'll have to answer for it. Well...
That doesn't really work. You see, we can think that nobody sees what we do. We can believe that nobody could possibly know what we've thought or what we've done in private without anyone seeing us. We can think that it's all just our little secrets that we can keep hidden away. But God does see. He does know our thoughts. He does see all of those wicked things we do when there's nobody around us. He knows every single bad choice and stupid decision we've made. He has witnessed the very things that we're convinced are locked away with no chance of coming to light.
It's easy to ignore that fact. It's easy to think that we have secrets that we can hide. And thinking in such a way makes sin even more acceptable. Nobody sees. Nobody knows. We don't face the consequences right away. So we run through life doing anything and everything our hearts desire without stopping to consider what we're doing. We run wild and rip the limits off so that we can experience this worldly version of freedom that so many are enjoying around us. We relish in our sins because we're convinced that maybe they're not so bad. Maybe we'll get away with it. Maybe God will forget. Maybe He doesn't really know to begin with.
That's foolishness to the core my friends. That's insanity, stupidity, arrogance, pride, selfishness, and every other vile practice all rolled up in one. As we talked about yesterday, God will punish the wicked. He will judge those who live in opposition to Him. He will have the final say when it comes to sin and evil and we don't want to be on the wrong side of that judgement! And truthfully, that's exactly what we deserve. Our sins and selfish ways deserve death. We deserve the suffering that Christ endured on the cross. We deserve to spend our eternities in misery for the things we've done. But, thanks to God's amazing grace, we don't have to!
We have the gift of salvation. We have the opportunity at forgiveness. We have the chance to be set free from our sinful ways to live a better life, to live for Christ. We have the chance to repent and leave our broken ways behind us for good. But we have to understand just how badly we need those merciful gifts. We have to see our sins for what they really are in order to realize that God's kindness is our only hope. We need to admit that what we've done is wrong and that we need to be forgiven. But it's hard to see those things when we're used to living in ignorance to the reality of sin.
While there may not be any immediate consequences, those consequences are still there! While we may be able to live doing as we please without facing punishment in this life, that won't be the case when this life is over. There is no avoiding the truth about our sins. There is no getting away with the wicked things we've done. We will answer one day. We will face the music as they say, and on that day when we're standing before God, it won't be all fun and games will it? Folks, like I said yesterday, we can't afford to live our lives thinking that God's playing around.
He does love us. He does want to save us. He does want us to repent and leave sin behind so that we can spend eternity in Heaven. But make no mistake, that doesn't mean that we can do as we please and just assume that He will keep on forgiving us. We have to change! We have to stop living in darkness separated from Him. We have to repent, start over, do right, and live the rest of our lives doing the best we can possibly do to please Him and live according to His will. He has already given us plenty of time to live foolishly doing whatever we wanted to do. It's time to do something different if we don't want to stare down the barrel of an eternity of suffering.
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