Lingering Sin

“But if you don’t drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides.  They will give you trouble in the land where you live.”

Numbers 33:55

Its a big day for Israel.  They are about to inherit the long awaited Promised Land that was just across the Jordan River.  An entire generation had passed away to insure the hearts and minds and faith of the people were squarely on God.  They were finally ready.  God gave them one instruction: Drive out the very existence and everything associated with the current inhabitants.  Why?  Why couldn’t they coexist with those that were already in the Promised Land?  It is because the ways and beliefs of those in the land were wicked in the eyes of God and He knew they would soon contaminate a fragile relationship that He had just built with His people, Israel.

So it is with our lives as Christians.  When we place our faith in the righteousness and salvation of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us.  Luke 17:21 tells us that the Kingdom of God — our Promised Land — can only be found within us.  What happens to our Promised Land when we allow unrepentant sin to remain in our lives?  I’m not talking about those little “oops” sins we all trip over.  Yes, we repent and move on.  I’m talking about the sin that had taken up residence in our lives before God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit came into our lives.  That sin that had taken root in our lives that we don’t really want to let go.

Friends, we must let them go and repent, constantly guarding against their return.  It is a corruption that, if not annihilated and wiped away, will slowly erode our relationship with God.  We must COMPLETELY die of our old nature and embrace the new, righteous, blood-bought creature we have become through Jesus Christ.

Let Marinate For One Hour:

1. Search your conscience and your heart.  Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any unrepentant sin you have that has taken root and you wont let go.  What is it?  Why is it there?  How have you been justifying that sin in your life?  Identify everything about it.
2. Turn that sin over to God.  Leave it nailed to the Cross.  Let your sincere prayer be to bind this sin in the Name of Jesus and ask for his power in your life to resist its temptations and destroy it.
3. If you have a pastor who you have a relationship with, go to them and ask them to pray and lay hands on you to further strengthen your faith and resolve over this sin.  A chord of three strands is not easily broken.