What do we do with the sins that never seem to leave us? Each of us has those sins that we struggle with every day, and we always seem to fail. We make all the promises of repentance and assure God that we won’t do that again. But soon enough, we’ve fallen. We live in this constant rebellion against the Creator, even as Christians. It breaks us down. Sometimes it makes us wonder if we’re even Christians at all. Our relationships with others and with God begin to break down. These sins make us feel dirty and alone, like we are the only ones in the entire household of God struggling with something so heinous. What do we do with those sins? The short answer is I really don’t know. These exact sins haunt me each and every day. I don’t know all the answers of how to deal with all of this. I’m still working through it. There are two things, however, that I am sure of.
1. We run to God immediately. Every time.
“He said to me ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
God’s grace is sufficient. When we promise God that we will never do a particular sin again, only to do it again soon after, we feel as if we cannot run to God. At least not right away. In fact, we believe we should be running away from God! How presumptuous is it of us to knowingly sin against the Lord and then walk straight into the throne-room of God and not only ask for forgiveness, but expect it. How prideful and hypocritical that must make us. No! His grace is sufficient. It is always sufficient. The prideful action is not to run straight to God immediately after we have sinned, but rather to wait a few days so that we might “re-earn” God’s favor before we ask for forgiveness! How dare we think this way. As if we could ever do anything to earn the favor of God. We did absolutely nothing to warrant God’s forgiveness in the first place, how could we even think that we could do so now?
I resonate with the refrain of Matt Chandler: God does not regret saving you! As Christ let out His final breath on the cross, He knew what each of us would be. He knew the sins we would struggle with. He knew that we would openly rebel against God and continue to spit on His cross even after we have been lovingly adopted into His family. Christ knew of every prideful action, lustful thought, hateful word, and sinister lie that would pervade the lives of His children. But He went to the cross anyway. “…while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). So as you sin, don’t hide from God. There is no hiding from God. As Adam and Even stood naked and sinful before Him, we too stand before God in our shame. We cannot hide. We cannot cover our wickedness. But just as God provided covering for Adam and Eve in the garden, so too will He provide covering for us. We need only run to Him – and run to Him fast, because He stands ready for you.
2. Don’t give up.
When we run to God, we repent and cling to the cross. But repentance is more than just apologizing and asking for forgiveness. It is also a turning from our sin. The analogy goes like this: When you turn away from something, you must also turn towards something else. If you walk towards one particular object, in order to make a 180 degree turn, it is necessary that you will now be heading towards something else. The same is true of sin. As we make a 180 degree turn away from our sin, we begin to head towards something else, God. This is repentance. The mistake many of us fall into is making the assumption that repentance lies fully on our backs. That is far from the truth! Certainly there is effort to be made on our part, but surely we know by now that our effort is far from enough. Repentance, in its fullest form, is an act of the Holy Spirit. We can’t even repent on our own! God directs the heart and the mind of man. This is why we must pray with David, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” So as we run to God for forgiveness, we remember that it doesn’t stop there. We must also keep fighting. We can’t give up. We must be vigilant, fleeing from sin and making haste towards our Father.
Thankfully, we don’t have to do it alone. Cry out to God, “Break my heart over this sin! Give me a heart that longs to seek after you! I am hopeless without You. I need you, Father. Help me as I fight against the sin and temptation surrounding me every hour.” Don’t give up, Christian, because God has not given up on you. He is fighting with you and fighting for you. He will make you new, because God always finishes what he started. Our total sanctification will one day be complete, because “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil.1:6).