Tuesday September 25, 2012

Do you have a recurring sin in your life?

Ring a mature Christian today and talk about it over coffee.

 

Read Exodus 12:3-6

 

My children get upset every time I suggest we have chicken for dinner - not just any chicken but one of the four fat hens out back that give us eggs each day. It’s not that they like eggs. I‘m the only egg eater in this household. They simply don’t want to eat their pets. I totally understand - but I still have fun teasing them.

 

The Paschal Lamb that was chosen and offered as a sacrifice to God was to function in the same way. That lamb was to be a part of the family from the 10th day of the month until the 14th day. The family was to feed it, care for it and tend to it in a special way. It was not to be among the other sheep, aimlessly wandering around the paddock.

 

The Paschal Lamb allowed each family to realise that there was a real cost to their redemption. It took the death of the beloved lamb to be freed. I wonder if you and I have come to that same point with our own redemption from sin. Do we realise the real cost for Jesus to redeem us from evil and sin? Can we genuinely weep knowing that it was our sin that drove the one we love, Jesus, to the cross to die in our place. Does our heart ache as we contemplate the price Jesus paid for us to be set free from the power of sin?

It’s only when we can truly experience the pain of knowing that Jesus, the one we love, has paid the price in full that we will willingly and joyously lay down the sin in our lives. When we internalise that truth and receive it by faith and love then and only then will our passions and longings strive for holiness and push sin and sinful desires away.

 

If you have recurring sin in your life (which most of us do) the answer is not in trying harder. Neither is it in giving up and simply accepting that sin as normal and unescapable. We need to spend time in the Word, meditating deeply and constantly on the price that Jesus paid for us. We need to feel the pain of Jesus’ suffering and His immense love for us deep in our bowels so that this love washes over us and changes us from the inside out. We need to open ourselves to Christ and let Him bring the deep motivation to change.

 

Are you open to Christ? Do you experience His love daily? Do you sit in His presence regularly and thank Him deeply for that love?

 

Prayer:
As you engage in adoration, confession and thanksgiving focus on what God has done for you through Christ Jesus at Calvary.

 

Adoration:

 

Confession:

 

Thanks:

 

Supplication:

¨ Pray for those churches in your area in which the Gospel seems to take a low priority. Ask God to motivate them to put the Word of God and the gospel as the number one priority. Pray that we would see more and more congregations getting excited about the gospel and going to great lengths to get it out into the local community, the nation and the world.

¨ Pray that our cell leaders would be equipped to lead, to teach and to pastorally care for the people in their cell. Pray that more people in the congregation would enter in a cell group.