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October 8

Reality and Temptation 

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell.  ––Mark 9:43 NKJV

We all know this guy (or gal): They frequently say the right words but do the wrong things. Over and over. You know, it’s that friend you counsel on the phone for an hour, earnestly trying to give them godly advice. Three days later they repeat the very same behavior you’d just discussed with them. And then a few days after that, you repeat the entire conversation. Sin. Confess. Repeat.

It’s like Ground Hog Day, but without witty Bill Murray and lovely Andi McDowell. It’s frustrating if you are the person giving the help and advice. It’s humiliating for the person caught in the sin cycle they just can’t seem to break out of. For the advice-giver, after a while it just feels like you are pouring water into a broken vessel that never gets patched up. The water just keeps flowing out the bottom.

The hard truth: amputate sin like a cancer. Be ruthless with it and unapologetic. If you don’t, it will metastasize and come back, fester, and eventually kill you. That’s certainty. 

The hard truth: spiritual actions speak far louder than words. They are the ultimate marker and maker of spiritual integrity. If you love someone, you seek alignment of your life to their priorities. Think about that. That’s a real relationship, anything else is fantasy. In the scenario above, the “repeat sin offender” (that’s you and me at one point or another) has to face the hard fact: No one is going to fix you but you with God’s help. Period.

The hard truth: thoughts, motive, and intentions reveal who we really are, and behaviors only confirm it. The tip of the iceberg is what people see. The mass below the waterline is what God sees. You can quit acting righteous and start being righteous. 

The hard truth: earth is not heaven. We should expect loss and grief. Yet we should anticipate God’s redeeming our grief and fulfilling His purpose in it. Though full redemption of suffering may not come in this lifetime, earth’s worst cannot escape God’s best. 

The hard truth: the motions might be right, but if the motivations are out of alignment, you might as well drop the charade. Playing church is playing with fire. 

If you are stuck in the sin cycle, don’t give up hope—which is exactly what the enemy wants you to do. And remember: If you don’t quit, you win.


Father, only You can expose my true motives; help me listen intently. 

 

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