The Narrow Roads

I have been pondering on this blog for several months now. We had a speaker at a woman’s event at our church who spoke on this very topic. While she was speaking, all I could think of was, this is me!! The topic brought me to Romans 7. I encourage you to read the whole chapter, but not stopping at 7, but go on to chapter 8 so you won’t be discouraged. In chapter 7, Paul talks about how he sins, but he doesn’t want to sin and that sin lives inside of him. Romans 8 encourages us, because God sent His only son Jesus Christ died for our sins and set us free from our sins. With that being said, let’s dive into to what God has put on my heart.

After we had this young woman at our church, we had traveled to a wrestling tournament that following weekend (yes, I am using a wrestling analogy). My oldest daughter Cheyenne had wrestled one of her worst matches, and lost a match she should have never lost. I was listening to the coaches yelling at her (you have to yell, because it’s so loud), telling her what to do and we are all watching Cheyenne fall into old habits. It was hard to see her lose that match, and it made me sad for her. The next day, God spoke a very clear message to me. This is what it looks like to God when we fall into old sin habits.

Like Cheyenne’s coaches, God gives us all the write guidance to not fall into old habits, but our flesh many times takes over. We want to do the right thing, we repent, but we fall back into old sin habits. This morning as I was getting ready for church, I was disappointed in myself, because I had fallen into an old sin habit that I keep going back to. Why can’t I just stop? Why can’t I just obey, keep my mouth shut and walk in freedom of the sins that keep me from God? I know better, I want to do better, but that sinful nature in me sometimes just takes over. I am the wretch in the song “Amazing Grace”. I have to be careful though, I can easily fall into self condemnation, which will take me to a very dark place. In this place I find no hope and become the victim. In this dark place, I don’t make room for Jesus. This is when I have to lay it at the cross and pray, I don’t go and pick it back up.

God’s word says in Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I am the Christian you see worshiping on Sunday and sinning on Monday. As much as I hate to admit it, that is me. If you are around me enough, you will see that I fall short. We all fall short, we all sin, but we don’t all repent and we don’t all admit to our sins. There is freedom in Jesus and thankfully it’s not my good works that get me to heaven. At times, I have evil thoughts, say evil words and do evil acts. I keep sinning and I keep walking down my own path, but GOD is right there redirecting me. God has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit, and when we spend time in the word and in prayer, the Holy Spirit is faithful to call us on our sins and gives us an opportunity to repent. We can’t get to heaven on our own, or in our own power. We need the Holy Spirit to guide us and show us which way to go when we get on the wrong path.

We will all fall short, we will all sin and we will all fall into habitual sin. My therapist used to always tell me, “If you are breathing, you will screw it up.” I keep hearing that saying in my head, “My kid would never, and here comes my kid nevering like he/she has nevered before.” That’s what I will say about a sin. I will never sin that sin again, but here I am sinning like I have never sinned before. It all sounds so discouraging and hopeless, but this is where Jesus comes in. This is when we have to remind ourselves of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. Jesus came for us, to save us, to set us free and all we have to do is accept His invitation. All we have to do is repent, and He openly accepts us, ugliness and all.

I want to leave you with this, God loves all of us with an unconditional love. There is nothing we can do that separates us from the love of God. God doesn’t sit up in heaven shaking His finger at us when we sin yet again. When we soften our hearts to the Holy Spirit, God can do amazing things in our hearts. When we accept the love of God, we come to know what true forgiveness is. None of us deserve God’s forgiveness and love, but He freely gives it, and all we have to do is ask. You will fall into sin and sometimes get stuck there for a bit, but by His mercy and grace, we can receive freedom through repentance. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve, and grace is getting what we don’t deserve. So, if you are like me and sin over and over and over again, just know, God forgives you when you repent. If it was Old Testament times, I wouldn’t have enough animals to sacrifice, but thankfully we live in the Jesus times where all we have to do is ask for forgiveness to be set free.

As we go into the next couple of weeks of Easter, remind yourself that if you were the only one alive, Jesus would have died for just you. I pray you will feel God’s freedom from sin this Easter season and the love He so generously gives. Be blessed and thanks once again for reading my blog!

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1