How can we know if we are in sin or not? A couple of ways actually. #1 While reading the Bible, the words will convict us of our sins. #2 While in prayer, in all our brokenness, we can come to the knowledge of our sins and come to Jesus who saves. #3 While in church, we can hear a sermon that speaks to our hearts and this helps us know that God is speaking to us and our sinful lifestyle. #4 During our encounters with other people we can be made aware of our sins. These people could very well be speaking about something they have struggled with and how they overcame it with God. This can also help us know that is sin if we are doing such things. And if so, we ought to repent and come to God. No matter how you come to find out about your sins, do something about it quickly. Attend to the wisdom of God that you may be made right in His presence. Allow the Lord to change your heart to walk differently. 3But in all this, we know that our flesh wars against the spirit. It does not wish for us to do God’s will but continue in sin. While in our fleshly state of mind, we hate instruction and despise reproof. How can you really know if you are living for God or living for the world? If you come been called out by God, because of your sins and you have received His instruction with gladness, then you are living for God, which leads to heaven. If you have been convicted of your sins but continue to live your own way, then you are living for the world, which leads to destruction.
Those that believe and love God don’t only say they believe, they obey the Lord’s commands by letting the Spirit of God lead them. No matter if it is by the Bible, through prayer, church or through other people, it is important for you to learn and grow in the faith. And when God does this, you are oh so grateful to gain understanding. If this is not your life and instead you find yourself disobeying God and not listening to other people when they also witness of God, then your life is unstable and on unsolid ground. It is good to obey God’s instruction, even through other people, but those that do not live in the Spirit of God, this is meaningless to them. And why is it that people distance themselves from God and don’t care as much about it? It is because the fear of God has left them. They care more about repenting later, instead of realizing that the wrath of God is real and everyone that dies in their sins will have to pay the price. However, if anyone could see what hell is like, they would repent now and come to Jesus and not put this off. Please understand that 1“the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.” Everything we do in life is recorded. And when we die, these things will be played back for us. Those that die without the instruction of God are led astray and are in danger of hell. 2However, those in Christ Jesus have nothing to fear, for their old life is dead and they are born again. The blood of Jesus has covered them.
Let us pray:
Oh Lord, please help anyone that is struggling now with sin and addiction. I understand that we all are sinners but some things are more difficult to quit than others. I just know that You give us the strength to stop doing what is evil and choose a better path. We can have ambitions in life to better ourselves long term but I know that we will only crash and burn if You are not at the head of the life change. Only by repenting and coming to You for forgiveness will truly allow us to be born again. We can cover up our sins really well, for so long, but nothing is long term without Your mercy and grace. Help people understand that if they want to be out from bondage, then they need to offer their whole hearts to You. It needs to be less of them and more of You. Lord, I know that You can do all things. You are the greater healer and for that I trust that You can heal mine and another’s hearts that submit to You. I believe in you Lord. I put my trust in God who saves. I am strengthened in Your love. Because of this, I can resist temptation and grow in the faith daily. Thank You for everything. I love You. Amen.
Let us read the Bible:
Note: Any Numbered References, found above, are listed below
1Proverbs 5 (KJV)
1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
7 Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
9 Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
11 And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
17 Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee.
18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.
22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
2John 3:1-8 (KJV)
1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
3Galatians 5:16-26 (KJV)
16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
