Daily Devotional for Saturday February 23, 2013
The Destructive Nature of Sin
(Proverbs 11:21)
***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, how do we work out our Salvation with fear an trembling?
ANSWER: It is a daily journey. Once you have made that confession of faith you are saved, but now you must grow in your faith. It is the process of sanctification that begins the moment you are saved and is only finished when you take your last breath and graduate to Heaven. Like anything, it takes hard work to grow as a Christian. Reading the word, praying, being part of a local fellowship of Believers, finding ways to serve the Lord, are all elements we need to work on daily to grow in our faith and become more like the Lord.
The destructive nature of sin is that it does not happen in a vacuum. I hear many say that it is my sin, my problem. Unfortunately, that is not true. When you sin, it is like throwing a pebble into a still pond. There is the initial ring it produces, but slowly, the ring spreads out and it gets bigger and bigger and produces more rings inside it.
The initial pebble may not have been that much, and the initial ring may have started small, but in the end it had grown to encompass a very large area. The point I am trying to make is that sin is not just your problem. At the very least, your sin is against God first, and yourself second. Almost always though, it involves other people that you are either sinning with or sinning against.
I do not have to tell any of you about the pain, heartache, and problems that evolve from our sin. The lives we injure, the lost trust from those we care about. The damages are great. On top of everything else though, we end up missing the blessings of God. God has blessings beyond our ability to imagine for each one of us. He loves to bless His children. But God cannot, and will not bless disobedience.
On top of everything else, your sin is keeping you from enjoying the blessings of God. We are so stubborn, so full of our selves, that we usually try to do things our way, ignoring what God has to say. We accept at best some very little, temporary pleasure from our sin, and miss the greater blessings God has for us if we had been obedient. The Bible tells us, "To obey is better than sacrifice."
I want to encourage you today to pray about whatever sin there may be in your life today. I want to pray for you as well, for God to strengthen you and give you the courage to walk away from your sins and into obedience to His word. I want to encourage you to leave behind the temporary pleasures of sin for the eternal joy of obeying our Lord.
There is no greater joy than when you are in obedience to what God has asked, knowing that He is proud of you as a father or mother is of a child who is obedient. Being obedient is the ultimate act of a child of God saying not my will Father, but thy will be done. As a believer, our ultimate objective should be to enter heaven one day, and hear God proclaim, "Well done thou good and faithful servant."
I love and care about you so much. Thank you, all of you, for praying for this work. We are seeing God move in people's lives daily. I am praying for you and believing God for your needs. Never hesitate to email me if I can help in any way. I love you, and never forget it is your prayers and generous support that makes it possible for Liveprayer.com to minister to literally hundreds of thousands worldwide every day.
May his richest blessings be with you today as we work to become the obedient children God has called us to be.
In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller