I was sitting in a question and answer session in which one of my heroes was answering pastor’s question. Someone asked him how to address a sin issue that is coming up a lot in churches all across the world.
He responded, “When this issue started surfacing, I didn’t know how to address, so I asked God. God dealt with my heart and said, “It’s not the sin that is the issue. The question is, “Do they love me?” If they love me and are seeking me, I’ll deal with their hearts about the issue. If they don’t love me and aren’t pursuing me, then they aren’t even saved and that’s an entirely different issue.”
So often, I meet people who want to have a relationship with God, but don’t believe they can have one until they give up _______ (fill in the blank: sex, drugs, drinking, etc.)
The reality is you don’t have to give up anything to have a relationship with God. If you’ll start seeking God, He’ll start dealing with your heart about issues in your life and over time, all the things you struggled giving up, will become easy to give up because God will give you the grace to do it!
In my life, when I started seriously pursuing God, this was the progression of me giving up sin in my life:
The Progression of Me Giving up Sin
Relationship with God -> Gave up: Drinking and Drugs -> Chewing -> Pornography -> Swearing -> Pride -> Lust -> Thought life -> __?_ -> __?_
When I quit drinking and doing drugs, chewing, and watching pornography, I thought I was on top of the world! I’d never have to face any “serious” sins again! Well… I discovered that there is a lot more junk in me than I thought.
The more you pursue God and grow and develop, the more He’ll show you things in your life that need to go. God eventually started dealing with my thought lift, the words that I spoke, my pride, etc.
The answer wasn’t to try harder to give those things up so I could be right with God. The answer was to continue to grow in my relationship with God so He could help me give up those things.
The more you continue in your relationship with God, the more and more Christ-like you will become. While we’ll never be perfect on this side of eternity, God will always continue to mold us into his image.
But it all goes back to two questions: Do you love Him and Are you seeking Him?
If you can answer yes to those questions, then He’ll clean up the things in your life that you believe are holding you back from Him.
If you can’t honestly answer yes to those questions, then I would love to have a conversation with you. Just click on the “contact me” tab on the side of this site and send me an e-mail!
Thoughts?
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