Of Resolutions And Such

Dear Friends,

Recently I was talking with a friend about the new year, and I asked if he had made any resolutions. He responded by saying he had decided this was the year he was going to stop swearing. I appreciated the honesty of his answer, and told him I thought it was a great thing to commit to. Then I asked if it was a problem he had struggled with for long. He said, “Too long.” He went on to explain that it was something he knew didn't please God, but found the guilt easier to deal with if he ignored the fact that it was going on. He said, “I thought that if I just didn't acknowledge it, the sin wouldn't be a big deal. I was wrong.”

As I listened to him I was struck by the fact that we all have areas of sin in our lives where we do the same thing. Sometimes it's a bad attitude we have about something, or maybe it's impatience with certain people, or maybe it's just simple selfishness in the way we live our lives. The list could go on, but the point is the same: there are areas of sin in our lives that we choose not to address. And when we do this we're doing the same thing my friend did, we’re assuming God doesn’t think our sin is a big deal. But of course, just like him, we're wrong.

The Bible makes it very clear that God hates sin - so much so that we're told the penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23). And because of how much He hates it, God wants us to make sure we don’t let it live in our lives. 1 John 3:9 puts it like this, “Those who have been born into God's family should not make a practice of sinning, because God's life is in them.” This means that as believers, we need to be diligent to acknowledge the sin in our lives - no matter how big, or how small, or unimportant we think it is - and then stop doing it.

So today, let's take time to get quiet with God and confess our sins to Him - all of them. Let’s not ignore the sins that we think are harmless, or that we enjoy. Instead, let's begin this new year with a serious commitment to regularly confess our sins to God and allow Him to forgive us and make us clean. Then let's commit to living each day with honesty before God, in the big things and the small. 

Amen?

Daniel