Sin Is Frustrating

     Sin is frustrating, to say the least. Sin is the bane of our walk with God. This is obvious and I don't think many believers would argue with me. As believers in Christ, we have a desire to follow God and honor him with our life, like Paul tells us in Romans 12,"...give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice the kind he will accept." So as with all goals worth striving for we have an obstacle. Sin.
     I think James sums it up pretty well when he says,"Rember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it," James 4:17. But I am wondering, at what point does it become sin. Sure it's easy to say that if I steal from my neighbor, or if I sleep with someone other than my spouse, then it is sin. Yet, is it the final act that is the sin or is it an elaborate process that we think isn't a sin until one of the Commandments is broken?
     I heard a pastor say once that all sin is a series of unwise decisions which end up leading us down a path to a sin we may have never intended to commit.  If that's the truth, maybe we ought to pay a little more attention to our actions. Of course we can't see the outcome of all of our decisions so we wont always know exactly what is taking us to sin. However, there are most definately situations where we know what the outcome will be. Jesus tell us in Matthew 18:8,"So if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It's better to enter eternal life with only one hand or one foot than to be thrown into eternal fire with both of your hands and feet." For us, right now that may mean putting an accountability software on your computer so someone else can see what you look at, maybe selling your television, maybe opening a savings account that charges you when you take money out so you stop spending it on junk. It can look like a hundred different things in your life.
     If we make the effort, sin can be avoided by putting up guardrails and destroying the little road that leads us there. It's interesting how the enemy makes every little things seem like it's not destructive and somehow gets us to focus on only the big sins. We think, maybe if I don't go all the way and fully commit the sin, it's not so bad and I'll be alright. But I think the point that kills us is when we begin to desensitize ourselves to a fallen world who tells us,"it's not against the rules unless you get caught," and turn a deaf ear to the Holy Spirit, to whom we cried out to for help and stop listening when He warns us. I have learned that you can know all you want about Scripture, you can argue a scholar into believing the gospel, and even know how to check off a list of memory verses each week, but if you don't listen to the voice of God when he, in his infinite wisdom and understanding, calls out to us,"Stop, my child there is danger ahead," you are doomed to a life of disappointment in yourself knowing you won't be free from you sin.
     I'm not trying to convict anyone, that's not my job. Listen to the Holy Spirit, spend some time in prayer, let him shine a light on areas of your life where things need to change. This is a new year, let's work together and seek our Father's face so this can be a year that finds it's way into the history books as a year where the Creator of the universe, is glorified in us because we learned how to live holy and sinless.