I read a while back about a little girl I had no connection with who has been missing for two days, her face and story was plaster all over social media, she had been found dead, disagreed like someone’s trash. The wave of emotions that enveloped me I can not even describe. What is wrong with the world? What makes it even more heartbreaking is that this is the new normal, we will hear about something like this weekly, if not daily. How can we live a life all in when sin is destroying what’s around us?
““A cry was heard in Ramah— weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead.””
Matthew 2:18 NLT
We have become immune to the things that are happening all around us. Not all of us but many are living a life with the thought ‘what can I do about it?’. Do stories in the news of sin rampaging through the world upset you? Do thousands of children in the world die before they get a chance to life cause you any emotion? In Canada alone it is reported that 100,000 children never get to be born each year because they are unwanted or inconvenient. What about those lost to addiction? Depression? Confused about who they are? If these things don’t cause you to pray, or even think then you have become numb to this epidemic and need to get a heart transplant. Jesus can heal your heart. We have the cure to sin. His name is Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the one who will guide our hearts like a vaccine once we surrender our lives to Jesus and ask Him to cleanse us. A key to this cure is told to us by Jesus in Matthew 6:14-15;
“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.
The ability to forgive those who are doing things to us is hard. It is even harder to forgive those who are doing horrendous things to children, woman and the unwanted. But if we are able to incorporate the love of Jesus into our lives, we can work to forgive these people. We don’t have to agree with them, nor do we advocate what they have done if a crime. Sin is the problem. Jesus is the solution.
Sin. It feels unstoppable, uncontrollable, such a disease that if we called it that would be labelled an epidemic in our worldly standards. Yet we walk around not talking about it, allowing it to happen. Why? We know the cure. We have the treatment, there is hope, yet we keep it to ourselves. I am no exception. We are worried that people will be offended if we say they are sick and in need of a Dr. Jesus on the cross died so that we might have a cure for sin, his blood the vaccine for sin. How dare you force your vaccine on me. All too many Christians use salvation as hand sanitizer only cleaning the surface sin, but never truly fighting the deep-down sin.
To live a life all in, it really boils down to what you allow sin to have priority in your life. Does sin keep you from forgiving those who hurt you or do horrendous things? Can you forgive them and let God and the justice system deal with them? Do you use salvation as a hand sanitizer or have you accepted it as a cure for your whole life? Jesus came to give you freedom from sin. Not just today but for your whole life. He desires to have a relationship with you.
If your reading this today and are like okay, I want to follow Jesus, now what? There is no formula, no exact prayer you need to pray. Open your heart to Jesus. Surrender to him and ask him for help. If you want the prayer that follows could be what you need to tell him.
Dear Jesus,
My life is a mess. Sin is controlling my life, I no longer want that. Jesus, come into my heart. Forgive me of my sins. Work in me to forgive those who have hurt me personally and globally. I choose to follow you. Start today to change me into the person you intended me to be. I want to be all in. Amen.
If you prayed that today, the angels are rejoicing. We want to rejoice with you to. Let me know. Share with your friends. If you need help finding some people or a church to connect with I can work to help you. Start reading your bible. If you have never ever read a bible start in the book of John.
Rejoice for you are now free. Your shackles are gone. Drop them and walk in freedom. Amen
