It is easy to understand why individuals succumb to attitude and actions that hurt themselves and others. Trying to be good is so very hard to do. It is easier to let basic human passions have free reign rather than curb or control them. The path of least resistance is taken. Only too late, when the “wages of sin” are paid out, does the heart realize how cheaply it has sold its soul. Like Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of pottage, people give themselves over to sin for a fleeting moment of passion, pleasure, or power. What is the reward of sin?
Sin defiles the conscience and silences the voice of God in the heart. Sin causes the soul to run from God. Sin creates an alternative reality of secrecy and shame. Sin will try to destroy any feeling of remorse and regret so that a person fails to realize that the guilt God has instilled into the moral consciousness of His creation is His gift of grace leading to repentance and restoration of fellowship. When God’s forgiveness is received, based upon confession and returning to righteousness, there is a desire to live moment by moment for the Lord, and not for sinful self.
There was a little girl, whose father was a pastor.
One day, she came to her father and said, “Daddy, can a person go their whole life without sinning?”
The father answered, “No, honey, I’m sorry, but that’s just not possible.”
“What about a year, daddy? Can a person go a whole year without sinning?” She continued.
“No, I don’t think that’s possible either.”
“What about a day, can a person go a day without sinning once?”
“It’s very unlikely, no, I don’t think they can.”
“What about one moment, daddy, can a person go one moment without sinning?”
“Yes, that is possible.”
“Then daddy, I want to live my life, moment by moment.”
Is not that how we should live our lives. Not looking ahead to our whole lives, or distant plans. But live moment by moment, as if this moment might be our last one before stepping into eternity.
For those who are experiencing the sorrows of sin, know this. “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (James 4:6). Humble yourself before God. Tell Him your specific sin, and ask for His grace and forgiveness. Then, rise up and live,, moment by moment, because of His grace , and for His glory.