⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

Ephesians 1:7 [NKJV]

Hey morning my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Today, I would like to take this time here to share about an area of my life where I’ve been struggling with for a long time. I am a sinner. Even though I may consider myself to a Christian/believer (even a not so religious one), I am still a sinner. Lord knows that I have committed so many sins in my life, it is impossible for me to list all of them down because that will take a very long time. But I am also realizing that I’m beginning to step into this level of spiritual self-awareness this morning. Earlier in the week, one of my daily bread reflections was actually about taking responsibility/ownership of our lives, and the situations that we find ourselves in from time-to-time. As I am thinking about my sins and the post-sin circumstances, I can’t help but know that I am alone responsible for how I would feel right after I’ve committed a sin. For a very long time, I must admit that I may have taken God’s grace and forgiveness for granted. As abundant as His grace is over my life, I feel like I’ve started to slip into this mindset of thinking, “Since I am imperfect, and that means sin will always be a part of my life, I can always rely upon God’s forgiveness and grace.”

While it might be true that God’s grace and forgiveness knows no bounds, it doesn’t make it okay for me to continue sinning. This very act of conscious, willful sinning also reflects and shows God that I haven’t been taking Jesus’s death on the cross for my sins seriously enough.

It’s Buried, Hence No More.

Something dawned upon me this morning when I thought about what it means to have this new life in Christ. What it meant for my life to be redeemed because of what Christ has done up on the cross. The best example that I can think of is this—when we have an old life that we want to leave behind and start afresh, we would do everything we can to “erase it”. We will remove everything in our lives that reminds us of that old past life that we had been living. And when we are finally ready to move forward with our lives, we would say that we have “buried” our old lives. And when we really bury our old ways of living, we are also essentially turning away from it, not just 90°, or 120°. We do a full 180° turn away from our old lives. We leave it where we buried it and we no longer carry it around with us into our new lives.

Now, if there is how we treat our old lives, we can most certainly do the very same thing with our sinful ways. Now, let me be absolutely clear, I am not saying that you and I will never ever sin again. I don’t really think that that is actually humanly possible. I mean, you’d have to be a perfect saint to not commit any sin in life. Well, I know I am no saint, that is for sure. But I am starting to believe that we no longer need to allow our sinful nature (the tendency and urge to sin) to rule over our lives. When you and I are faced with that same urge to sin again, we can now look at it and say, “No, I am not going to do that anymore. I have buried it.”

Again, I know that there will be days when we feel weak, and yes, there will be times when we may still give in to those urges and commit those sins again. But let’s make it our own personal missions to not let sin rule in our lives. We have buried it. Now we can choose NOT to live in a perpetual sinful life. I believe that this is the best way that we can really honor Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice up on the cross for our sins.

Personal Prayer for Today

Dear Father God,

Thank You for speaking to me today about something in my life that required work/correction. Thank You for showing me and speaking to me about my recent/current sinful ways. Thank You for reminding me that it is actually possible for me to say “No more” to those sinful ways of living. Thank You for reminding me that once our past mistakes and failures are buried, we no longer have to keep carrying them into our new lives.

My biggest lesson today from reading Your word is to be reminded that the best way I can honor Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is for me to stop allowing sin to rule over my life. That I can take greater responsibility and ownership over my own actions and decisions everyday of my life.

Today, I begin to really understand what it means for me to be redeemed and delivered from sin.

I continue to ask that You will help me on a daily basis. Give me the strength that I need to face those sins and temptations and to say No to them.

I vow to give You all of the praise and all of the glory. In Jesus’ mighty name I pray.

Amen.