Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
All of us can agree that our wills are broken.
We are also Sinners!
We are rebellious, idolatrous, lost, enslaved, disobedient, adulterous, and—in case the point was not pressed far enough—dead. Our sin IS NOT JUST brokenness, our repentance and distaste of sin will not push us in the other direction hard enough. And our appreciation of the cross as the only cure will be replaced with self-effort and legalism.
Our Sinful natures, our sinful actions and thinking goes far beyond mere brokenness.
Be mindful we are NOT victims. We are active sinners and we are broken primarily because of that fact.
Sin should never be reduced to victimization or a buzzword or a flippant excuse.
Sin is serious, our Sin is serious!
The wages of SIN is DEATH! I use all caps to show that we should take notice, yet we often do not.
Sin is normalized in our lives and sadly it is glorified and at the center of our entertainment.
Sin is not just a “struggle” or a bad habit; we must refer to sin as the Bible does—rebellion against the Lord God.
We are entertained by adultery, murder, etc. you name it, the worst of sin and human behavior is now everyday run of the mill media. Christians have stopped objecting and watch along with the rest of our world. But here is the problem.
After living for a while in this broken world we learn to maneuver around the problems, almost as if they are not there. The sad and upsetting fact that life is broken becomes a regular part of our lives and simply does not bother us anymore. We develop the sad and lamentable capacity not to care anymore about things that should break our hearts and upset us. We slowly lose our moral edge and do not even realize it. Things that God says are not okay become okay to us (we call evil good and good evil). We lose our ability, our commitment, to be good and angry at the same time. We begin accepting the unacceptable and living with what should be unlivable. We stop objecting in righteous anger and learn to cope in unrighteous complacency, ultimately leaving behind our faithfulness to the radical, transformative power and call of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We must repent of our sin of being like our culture. This is hard.
Repentance is hard because pridefullness is easy. True repentance is not legalism, not a task to preform or a hoop to jump through. “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19–20).
We do not want to admit when we have sinned, and thus we have trouble truly confessing and then repenting of sin. Yet when we do repent, we begin to bear fruit in our lives.
To be Salt and Light, to be set apart we must not only think that way we must pray that way. The Christian Way of Life involves the Gospel, our Gospel Witness, Scripture Reading, and Prayer. We cannot have relationship with God apart from these things.
Too busy? Then be intentional and make time. Men make God a big deal in your family by being an example of bible reading and prayer.
Yet…In the midst of our sinful natures God is at work. God is patient and forbearing and kind. Yet his patience will not last forever. These earthly provisions are not sufficient in and of themselves. They are intended to lead us to recognize the goodness of God so that we might repent of our sinful disregard and place our trust in him.
Everyday God provides for us in so many ways. Hopefully, we will develop a humble heart that recognizes the generosity of God toward us despite our sin.
Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
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