So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
– Romans 6:11-14
One of the tools of the enemy is to convince people to begin to tolerate their sins. I know of people who once would not watch any filth on television but over time they have begun to allow a few curse words here and there or a few sex scenes here and there all in the name of entertainment. They use to have such a heart to avoid compromise but these days find them sliding more and more into lukewarmness and allowing compromise into their lives.
This is nothing more than a lie of Satan. He works his way into our lives and he brings us to a place where we allow his lies to fill our minds and hearts. We once burned with a zeal for holiness (1 Peter 1:15-16) and we once longed to glorify God (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) but now we allow the junk of this world from television to movies to books and magazines to fill our minds with the junk of this world. We once prayed with fire and believed God for the impossible (Mark 11:22-24) but now we don’t pray much at all. Once we longed to share the gospel and see souls saved by God’s grace (Mark 16:15; John 20:21) but now we can’t remember the last time we even spoke to someone about Christ. We used to love God’s Word and cherished His voice in the Word but now our Bibles lay dormant and dusty (James 1:22-25).
My prayer to God is that He would put in my heart an intense hatred for sin that comes from Him. I want to exalt Jesus in all that I say or do (Colossians 3:17) and I don’t want to allow the world to slip into my life (1 John 2:15-17). I want to fully obey Christ (Matthew 7:24-27) and I want to please Him and Him alone (Colossians 1:10). I want to see lives around me transformed by the Spirit of God as He works through me to bring glory to His Son.
But more than anything else, I pray that God would help me to hate my sin as much as I hate sin in others. It is quite easy to judge sin in others and ignore my own (Matthew 7:1-5). I pray that God’s righteous judgement from His Word (John 7:24) would burn in me and help me to hate my sins. I can point the finger all day at others and see their faults but I long for God to open my eyes by His Spirit and place His holy finger on my sins (John 16:8-11). I want Him to expose my heart before His throne and allow me to repent of any sins that are holding me back from exalting Jesus Christ (1 John 1:5-10). Oh to hate sin! Oh to love Christ with an unquenchable and undying love!
My prayer for you and the entire Body of Christ is that we would all burn with a zeal for Jesus. Enough with playing games with the world (James 4:4). Enough with toying and flirting with sin. Enough with wasting time on things that don’t matter. Let us all unite in seeking Christ and seeking to glorify Him in the beauty of holiness (Psalm 29:2 NKJV).
[Link to original post and comments at Roy Ingle’s website.]
