God Is Not Mad at You: You Can Experience Real Love, Acceptance & Guilt-free Living (24 page)

Only a mature believer is able to squarely face his sin and not feel condemned. We know that sin is a reality, and one that we deal with daily, so how can we deal with it and not be consumed by the reality of it? I believe it is only by firmly believing that God is greater than our sin, and by recognizing that sin is part of the human condition.

We can see from these Scriptures that sin is a problem for everyone, but Jesus is also the answer for everyone. No problem is really a problem as long as there is an answer for it. Not only have we fallen short of the glory of God, but according to Romans 3:23, we are currently falling short. This indicates it is a continual problem, yet Jesus is continually at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us, so this continual problem of sin has a continual and uninterrupted answer. Hallelujah!

Every day our determination should be to not sin. I started my day asking for God’s help in living a righteous life. I talked with Him about several things that are weaknesses for me. I asked Him to strengthen me, that I might only think thoughts and speak words that are pleasing to Him. I prayed that I might not be deceived by the devil, or be drawn into any of his traps. I don’t merely take it for granted that I won’t sin; I ask for God’s help.

According to
Vine’s Complete Expositionary Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words
, to sin means “to miss the mark.” It is the most common term for moral obliquity (deviating from a right line). Sin is an act of disobedience to divine law, a trespass. Other terms for sin include disobedience, error, fault, iniquity, transgressions and ungodliness. The Bible states that whatever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23). Wow! That takes in a lot of things for most of us. Anything we choose to do with any attitude other than complete
faith is sin. No wonder we need to be continually forgiven. I am sure glad that Jesus has already taken care of the sin problem, aren’t you?

Although I deal with sin, I am not focused on it. I strongly urge you not to be either. We never overcome sin by focusing on it. When we are convicted of sin, we should admit it, repent and then turn toward Jesus. By focusing on Him and His Word, we will receive the power to overcome. For instance, if a person has a terrible temper, it won’t help him to continually focus on his temper, but it will help if he meditates on the fact that Jesus has already given him His peace (John 14:27). Instead of thinking, “I am an angry person with a bad temper,” he can think, “I have the peace of God dwelling in me and I am going to let it rule and lead in my life” (Colossians 3:15).

God’s Word teaches us to turn away from all that will distract us unto Jesus, who is the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). The apostle Paul teaches that if we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Always focus and meditate on doing right, not on what you have done wrong, but don’t ignore sin.

One problem that man has is ignoring his sin and the other is focusing on it. We must deal with it swiftly and trust God to help us overcome it. I am concerned today that the attitude many take toward sin is unbiblical and even dangerous. Lots of people don’t even refer to their sin as sin. It is their hang-up, problem, bondage, addiction or in some cases, their right. For example, we often hear that it is each individual’s right to say whatever he wants to say whenever he wants to say it. We call it freedom of speech. But God clearly tells us to bridle our tongue and not speak evil things. Some feel it is a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy by getting an abortion, but God clearly tells us that children are a blessing from the Lord and only He can give and take away life.
We cannot make up our own rules about what is right or wrong to suit our preferred lifestyles, and still expect God’s blessings to abound in the world.

We see the results of this loose attitude toward sin in our society today. We are living in an increasingly immoral society that has many serious problems. I have seen such decline in just fifty years that I frankly cannot imagine what our world will be like in another fifty years unless people wake up and return to God and His ways.

We cannot be responsible for what everyone else does, but we must be responsible for our own attitude, and it is important to me that I make it clear that our attitude toward sin must be the same as God’s. He hates it; it grieves Him and His intention is that we progressively work with Him to overcome it, at the same time knowing that He loves us unconditionally and is always ready and willing to forgive and strengthen us. God doesn’t want us to make excuses for our sin, but He does want us to face it and let Him set us free.

If the devil just wouldn’t tempt us, things would be a lot easier. But that is not ever going to happen, so we need to stay one step ahead of him. Temptation is a part of life. Jesus in His model prayer told His disciples to pray that they would not come into temptation. He did not tell them to pray that they would never be tempted, because He knows that is not possible. But He did tell them to pray that when they were tempted, they would be able to resist.

Jesus was tempted in all points like us. He was tempted by the devil while He spent forty days and nights in the wilderness
(Luke 4). The apostle James tells us that the man is blessed who “ENDURETH temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life” (James 1:12 KJV). I like to say that to endure means to outlast the devil! He brings pressure on us hoping we will cave in to the temptation to do the wrong thing, and our part is to resist him in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Temptation is not sin! This is very important for us to believe. If we see each temptation as sin, we may feel that we are terrible people filled with ungodly desires. Just today someone irritated me, and I was tempted to go and tell someone else about it. I really wanted to, but I knew that God would have me keep my mouth shut and cover the offender’s weakness. I continued wanting to repeat what I had seen on and off for a few hours, but as I steadfastly resisted, the urge became weaker and finally left me. Am I a bad person because I wanted to spread a rumor? No, it was actually a victory for me that I didn’t give in to the temptation. We are tempted in many ways on a regular basis. God’s Word teaches us that there is no temptation that comes to us that is not common to man or that is beyond human resistance, but that God is faithful and He always provides a way out (1 Corinthians 10:13).

We all have things that are temptations to us. For some it is one thing and for another it is something else. I am never tempted to rob a grocery store, but I am tempted to say things I shouldn’t say, or to be impatient, as well as other things. It is good to know our own weaknesses so we can pray ahead of time to be strengthened before we are faced with the temptation. One person may be tempted in the area of sex or lying or using foul language, and another may be tempted to buy things he cannot afford to pay for, or to cheat on his income tax, or to ignore a commitment. The list of temptations that the devil is a master at is endless, but I urge you to remember that temptation is not in itself sin. It only
becomes a problem if we give in to it and allow it to give birth to sin (James 1:12–15).

If the temptation is continual and tormenting, then it may require some help or ministry, but daily normal temptations are part of life. The devil tempts us, we resist him and he goes away to wait for a more opportune time to try again (Luke 4:13).

Temptation comes in many forms, and one of the ways it comes is during trials and tribulations. We are often tempted to give up, or have a bad attitude, or become angry with other people. These bad attitudes should be resisted in God’s power. We always see our true character clearly in difficult times. God told the Israelites that He led them forty years in the wilderness in order to humble and test them, to see if they would keep His commands (Deuteronomy 8). It is easy to think that we would behave a certain way when there is no pressure on us, but to be tested and pass the test proves the true character of a man. Jesus passed all of His tests, and prayerfully we are passing more and more of ours all the time. We know that we won’t have a perfect record, but one good thing about God’s testing method is that He never gives up on us and we get as many “do-overs” as we need.

Although God does test us, He never tempts us to sin. According to Scripture, we are tempted when we are enticed by our own evil desires, lust and passions (James 1:13–14). We might say that trials definitely show us our weak areas, and that can be a good thing, because anything brought out into the light can be dealt with.

Many people don’t know themselves at all and they think more highly of themselves than they should. I can remember seeing
others give in to temptation and thinking pridefully, “I would never do that.” But when I was tested by my circumstances, I found that I had weaknesses I did not know I had. Getting to know my weaknesses allows me to pray ahead of time for God’s continual strength in resisting them. The more we lean on God, the more victory we will enjoy.

In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus felt tremendous pressure and temptation to run from the will of God. He prayed so intensely that He sweated great drops of blood. That is some serious praying. He prayed through to victory and eventually said that although He preferred to be delivered from the things that were ahead, He was willing to submit to His Father’s will in all things. This gives us a good example to follow. That we don’t want to do a thing that God asks us to do does not mean that we may be excused from doing it. Pressing through and doing what is right, especially when we don’t feel like it, develops spiritual maturity in us.

Jesus wanted His disciples to help Him pray, but they slept. He knew that they, too, would be tempted, and He wanted them to be strengthened ahead of time, but they slept. I wonder how many of us sleep when we should be up a little earlier, being strengthened against the temptations that the devil has planned for us that day. Jesus said, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). We may want to do the right thing, but due to weakness in the flesh we cannot assume that we will. We dare not trust ourselves too much, but instead we should lean heavily on God to be our strength.

If Peter had prayed, perhaps he could have avoided the trauma of denying Christ three times.

The book of Psalms begins by instructing the reader not to sit inactive in the pathway of sinners. If we are not aggressively resisting sin, we just might get sucked into it. Passivity or inactivity is a very dangerous thing. We must exercise our will to choose what is right and not merely assume that we can sit with evil persons and not be infected. This does not mean that we must avoid sinners altogether. The truth is that they need our presence and witness in their lives, but we do need to be careful. I always say let’s be sure that we are affecting them and that they are not infecting us.

The apostle Paul told the Corinthians not to associate too closely with those who were not living right (1 Corinthians 5:9–11). A casual relationship may be acceptable, but not an intimate one. You can be friendly with someone at work who lives an immoral lifestyle, but to form an intimate and regular association would not be wise.

Another thing we should avoid is feeling superior when we see other people sinning, because this wrong attitude opens a door for a moral fall on our part (Galatians 6:1).

This Scripture always reminds me that we are usually not quite as strong as we might like to think we are. We should pray for those we see sinning and say, “But for the grace of God, there go I.” The moment we think, “I would never do that,” is the moment
we invite the devil into our lives to embarrass and shock us with our own behavior.

We are to avoid even the very appearance of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22). We should live carefully. Not fearfully, but carefully. We can live large and free lives, enjoying a great deal of liberty, and at the same time live carefully. We take care in how we relate to the opposite sex, especially when one or both parties are married. For example, I once had a male employee who started bringing doughnuts each morning for one of the female employees. They were both married, and his actions made me feel uncomfortable. I told him that if he wanted to bring doughnuts, he could bring them for everyone, but not to single out one woman to show favor to. By confronting this situation, I may have saved both of them from something more tragic down the road.

Make no provision for the flesh (Romans 13:14). If you don’t want to bake a cake and eat it, then don’t have a cake mix in the house. If you don’t want to eat dessert, don’t go to the bakery and stare at all the baked goods.

If a man was previously addicted to pornography, it would be wise for him to be accountable to someone about which websites he could access on his computer. He should even avoid looking at pictures in advertising magazines sent to his home that may contain pictures of women in scanty underwear. We must be aggressive against temptation and never merely assume that we won’t have a problem. God tells us to turn entirely away from evil, so we dare not flirt with it, thinking it won’t be a problem for us.

Keep things off your mind that could turn into problems for you. It is dangerous to think that as long as something is only in your thoughts, it is not a real problem. All real problems start in the mind. We can never do a thing unless we first think the thing!