One of the questions I remember being asked during my interview to be commissioned for ministry was about sin and evil. I think all too often we claim that "Satan made me do it", because we don't want to admit that how deep of a hold sin has in our life. If we blame all of the evil on the world on Satan, we don't have to do the hard work of looking at the evil that exists within ourselves because of the fall, which of course has Satan in the mix.
The truth is we all struggle with sin. We struggle with the control that sin has on our lives, and seem to think that if we turn a blind eye long enough than it simply will go away or not exist at all, which isn't true. We only need to look as far as God's original plan for the world and compare it to how sin entered the world to see that things are not as they should be, not as God intended them to be.
The problem is we are really good at identifying the sin in others lives and not so great at recognizing it in our own. It is a sin when we don't live by the power of the grace we have been saved by. It is a sin to think that your relationship with Christ is about doing just enough to get to heaven. It is a sin to not live like we are alive in Christ together. Which I am going to venture a guess makes us feel much more uncomfortable, because these are sins that church folks struggle with every single day.
Let us take time to ask God to search us and know us. To peer into the depths of our hearts and confess any sin that is holding us back from our relationship with God. Let us ask Christ to free us from the chains that bind us, whatever they may be, so that we can grow deeper in love with God. Let us confess that times we have ignored the sin in our life or focused more on another's sin instead of our own. Let us seek God's grace to be made fully alive in Christ!
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