Little children, let no one deceive you!  The one who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous.  The one who commits sin is of the devil,  for the devil has sinned from the beginning.  The Son of God appeared for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works.  Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed remains in him;  he is not able to sin because he has been born of God.   This is how God’s children-and the Devil’s children-are made evident

1 John 3: 7-10  HCSB

Our scripture passage today begins by warning us against being deceived.  We’ve spoken about how sin is contagious and how we are not to associate with those who habitually sin.  Let me stop for a moment here to clarify something.  We know from Romans 3:23 that all of us sin and fall short of the glory of God.  So none of us mere mortals can sit on our high horse and say that we don’t sin.  What this scripture passage is speaking of is habitual, intentional sin.  This is the sin that we know is wrong, but we just won’t let it go.  This is the sin that we try to justify by telling ourselves that God understands.  This is the sin that you don’t ask forgiveness for because you know that you have no intention of giving it up.  This is the type of sin that we are talking about here.  With this type of sin, we usually think that we can just keep it hidden, but unfortunately it shows.

Now I am not proud to say that I had that type of sin in my life.  I tried to justify it.  I mean after all, God knew what I had been through in my past relationships so I figured he would just understand and give me a free pass.  I loved the Lord and I wanted to please Him, but I was hoping that He would just understand and we could move on.  Well, that never happened.  God made me miserable in my sin.  He made it abundantly clear that He was not giving me a free pass for this sin in my life.  He made it abundantly clear that I would have to answer to Him.  So I asked Him to help me remove that sin from my life and He answered that prayer right away.  He came in like a whirlwind within a few hours and destroyed that situation that was causing my sin.

Now sadly, it’s obvious when we are living a lie.  It shows.  Never kid yourself and think that you can prop yourself on a pew Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night and live a life of sin and not be found out.  First and foremost, God knows. The Bible tells us in Luke 12:1-3, There is nothing covered that won’t be uncovered, nothing hidden that won’t be made known.  Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in an ear in private rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops. 

Here’s a big news flash for you, sin shows.  Yep, just like the slip that is longer than your skirt, sin shows.  Just like the blue that gets all over your teeth and tongue when you have had a bubble gum snow ball, it shows.  You may think you are doing a fabulous job of hiding your sin, but sadly, you are only kidding yourself.

You see we are clearly told in the Bible that what is in our heart  spills out (Matthew 12:34).   Now if you routinely ask God to fill your heart with His Holy Spirit, then the fruits of the spirit will spill out.  Your heart will overflow with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Is this what shows when other people look at you?

Now the wonderful thing about our heart as it refers to our spiritual being, is that it can be made clean.  When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and believe that He died on the cross to save us from our sins, we can be made clean.  Jesus’ blood can wash us white as snow.  Hebrews 10:22,  Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and  our bodies washed with pure water. 

If you are living a life that you would not want your Christian friends to know about, know this, it shows.  They may not know exactly what you are up to, but those around you know that you are not living as you should.  Know that whatever we do in darkness will be brought into the light.  If you are not living as God has called you to live, it shows.  If you are focusing on God and doing your very best to please Him, it shows.

The best thing I ever did was confess my sin to God and ask Him to help me to remove it from my life.  I am not perfect, but praise God, I am forgiven.  I ask God each and every day to fill me with His Holy Spirit.  I ask Him to guide me and help me to live a life that is pleasing to Him.  Doing so has caused me to lose a lot of things.  It has caused me to lose friends that were not true friends.  It has caused me to lose chaos, confusion, and turmoil.  It has caused me to lose  anxiety.  My friends lost have been replaced by good Christian friends that help me, keep me accountable, and lift me up in times of trouble.  My chaos, confusion, and turmoil has been replaced by love, peace, and joy.  My anxiety has been replaced with the comfort found by living in close relationship with my Lord and Savior.

If you are righteous, it shows.  If you are evil, it shows.  Don’t be deceived into thinking that you are getting away with it.  The life we live in private always catches up to us in public.  Today, I encourage you to live a life that makes God proud of you.  Live a life that pleases Him.  The payoff is that this type of life makes you happy and peaceful, but the best payoff is that it allows us to spend eternity with our Heavenly Father in Glory.  When your future is that bright, believe me it shows!

Have a great day!