“My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world”.

1 John 2:1-2 NLT

Sin. That’s a word that nobody really wants to talk about. It’s considered a harsh word, a taboo word, an action that is subjective and not to be judged by us. A word that is hard to define. We seem to live in a world where everyone wants to do what’s right in their own eyes and sin is sparsely acknowledged.

In Hebrew and Greek the word sin ties back to the phrase “missing the mark”. And since we are made in the image of God, we sin when we miss the mark and don’t reflect His image in our actions, our words, our thoughts, and our desires. We sin when we miss the mark of the Ten Commandments that were given to help us have healthy relationships with God, with others, and with ourselves. And we miss the mark when we think we have no sin.

But who wants to admit they sin! I mean, grace makes it so easy to make excuses for ourselves.

When I was gambling, it never dawned on me that it was a sin. It wasn’t until I let it go and let God fill my heart that I realized how much of a sin it was. I realized it was distracting me from my unhealthy emotions, keeping me from intimately connecting to the Lord and to others, and it held me back from building my character in righteousness because I was tied to a false purpose. My gambling wore me out. It was a burden I could not lift by myself. And it was a substitute for a contentment I wasn’t able to find in this world. When I finally was able to recognize it for what it was, confess it to God, and ask for His help, the joy that was unleashed was so much greater than anything I could ever accomplish on my own. But don’t get me wrong. I am still a sinner! Every. Single. Day. But I’m able to recognize it better now and deal with it God’s way.

When we don’t recognize and acknowledge our sin, we deny God’s love, we deny God’s truth, we deny God’s deity, and we deny ourselves the showers of God’s blessings that He has in store for us. When we don’t acknowledge our sin, we miss the joy of true forgiveness and the real gift of God’s grace. We simply cannot be free to be who God wants us to be when we refuse to acknowledge our sin.

As the Lord was sitting at the table with His disciples, He told them that one of them would betray Him. ‘’And greatly distressed, each one in turn said, Am I the one, Lord” (Matthew 26:22 NLT)?

Are you greatly distressed at the thought of betraying the One who came to save you? Let your sin be the object of His love. Acknowledge it. Confess it. And embrace His great love for you. Sin does not have to be taboo. Sin is real and it points us all to Jesus.

In Matthew 9:13, Jesus tells us that He “came not for those who think they are righteous, but for those who know they are sinners”.

If the word sin makes you uncomfortable there’s probably something that needs to be dealt with in your heart. Ask God to search your heart and then ask Him that really hard question: is it me Lord? Am I the one you came for?

#SaturdaySoulSearch