For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us-not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy-through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. He poured out this Spirit abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:3-7 HCSB
When I try to lead someone to Christ, I am trying to bring them out from where I came. You see I am a sinner. Romans 3:23 tells us that we have all sinned. I can’t look down my nose at someone for their sin, because I am a sinner. Doing so would make me a hypocrite. I was raised in church. I was a good girl. I have never even experimented with any type of drug, including marijuana. I did take one puff from a cousin’s cigarette when I was around 11 and found it to be really nasty. So I never did that again. But I grew up and even though I tried my best to not sin and I remained in church, I sinned. My sin separated me from God, even though I was sitting on a church pew at least 2 Sundays out of the month. I lived like the Israelites in the desert. I followed their same pattern. I would fall into sin. It would separate me from God. God would punish me. I would repent. God would pull me out of the mess I had made. I would do well for a while and the pattern would repeat. That type of lifestyle was exhausting.
Next week will mark the anniversary that my life changed for good. It happened on 08/22/2010. I cried out to God to fix the mess that my life was in and He told me to trust Him. I did and He fixed it all for me. I know where I have come from. I know that I have had many sins in my life. It would be easy for me to look at others and say that their sin is greater than my sin. But the Bible tells us that sin is sin. Whether it is a lie or murder. We saw in the book of 2 Samuel, chapter 11, how one sin leads to another. David, a true man of God, wasn’t where he was supposed to be and ended up committing adultery, lying, and committing murder before he knew what was happening.
Today, I encourage you to look at your life. Are there areas where you need to remove sin? Maybe you have thoughts that need to be cleaned up or removed. Maybe your gossip needs to be brought under control. Whatever it may be, remember that God can wash you clean. Just as our scripture passage says today, we can be washed clean and renewed by the Holy Spirit. We can actually be made new again (2 Corinthians 5:17). We can be filled with God’s Holy Spirit, which can live in us and help us to not want to sin. I don’t know about you, but for me that was an offer that was just too good to resist. I am so glad that I made the decision to take God up on His offer. I hope that you will do the same.
Have a great day!