Since traveling, God has been kind to show me the sins and faults that I have never seen before. But, for the past two weeks, God has been peeling back some undesirable sins in my life. There is a difference, you know, in sins that are tolerable and sins that are undesirable. Maybe even describing them as the sins that you are okay with having or sins that you have grown comfortable as claimed, but then, there are sins that you would rather not have anyone see, not even yourself.
God is kind to expose those kinds of sin. If I just kept living in my tolerable sin, I wouldn’t see the wickedness of my heart. Ironically though, the sin that God has been exposing in me happens to be, in my mind tolerable and undesirable. It just got exposed at different times and in deeper ways. Mine is FEAR.
This sin, for many years, has been the sin that keeps me “looking” spiritual. For example, I fear what others think, so I serve and try to live righteously in my own efforts. It has also been a sin that I have claimed as an excuse or label. This is where God wanted me. How does this happen? Well, once exposed to my fear of man, I broke. God started putting in me a desire for Him and a realness of my sin. I had a hunger for God. God used this raw form to make me see what my sin was; wicked. I actually experienced freedom in claiming I was a sinner! Through months of this stripping of my rotten self-righteousness, God used His Word and His people to show me that I was okay being a sinner. Christ died for sinners, not for perfect people. However, I got comfortable and let the sin become a weight in my spiritual race. I allowed fear to define me. Sarah is a fearful person. I was okay with that.
Should that be the end? Should I let sin define who I am?
Colossians 3:3 states, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” This verse tells me that if I am saved, I have died. My sin has died with Christ. And I am now hidden in Christ. Romans 7:4a states, “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ.” So, I should not claim only my sin, because I am to know that I am a sinner. But, if I claim only that I am a sinner then I am the publican, who couldn’t see that he was hidden in Christ. Neither can I claim that I am self-righteous, or I am the Pharisee, who could only see what he had done for God in His own strength. He couldn’t see that it is Christ who has done the work.
“Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”
Hebrews 12:2
Jesus completed a perfect race. Why should I claim anything but Christ? Because of Christ, He defines who I am: a child of God, hidden in Christ. May my life dwindle in the light of Him
Beyond the Road Less Traveled 