I will love them freely

It's so easy to live life day after day and become indifferent to sin or lukewarm to sin. It's so easy to fall into the worldly thinking of "if everybody else is doing it why not me."  Do you agree?

What I have learned in my own life is when we continually see or tolerate specific sin that is coupled with enjoyment and pleasure it’s not unusual for us to lose the shock reaction for that particular sin that it once had with us. Instead of quickly turning away we are ok with this sin being around us.  Now we are no longer living life fully in Christ.  We not only affect our daily walk with God but we affect our family's walk and growth in God by the sin we are now ok with.

What sin am I talking about?

All sin. Anything the Lord says is sin. It's not hard to live a life free of sin. I’m not saying we are perfect.  We are going to make mistakes but there is a life to strive for that is without sin.  All it takes is a willingness and a heart turned to the Father to receive truth from His word.   To receive what He says is right living and what He says is wrong living.

The enemy wants nothing more than for you and me to become lukewarm to sin.  When we become lukewarm or indifferent to one specific sin it is THE open door the enemy has to now walk in and start working on allowing you and me to become lukewarm to another specific sin then another specific sin and so on. The enemy's whisper is "if everybody else is doing it why not you?"  But the problem with that thinking is the devil is not our creator. The Father is. The bible is not the Word of the enemy. The bible is the Word of God.

Are you indifferent or lukewarm to a specific sin today that you had a shock reaction to in the past? God's word says in Hosea 14:1 that our sins are our downfall. The more we tolerate sin and allow it to seep in our lives it is just a matter of time before our life as we know it crumbles.

Nobody needs to tell you or me whether we have become lukewarm to sin. Right where I am sitting, if I am honest with myself, I know where I have let sin enter my lifestyle and stay in my life.  Right where you are sitting, if you are honest with yourself, you know where you have let sin enter your lifestyle and stay in your life. But because of God’s love for me and God’s love for you there is hope! 

Hosea 14:4  says, "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him."
 
Have you felt distant from the Lord lately? Like God is mad at you?  Have your family relationships been struggling lately? It may just be that the sin you allowed to seep in and make itself at home in your life has become the very reason things are in disarray, the very reason you keep asking yourself "Lord, where are You?"

You truly desire to be used by God to change this world but some specific sins that you now allow in your life that you did not allow before has caused God to turn Himself from you. I have come to know God cannot use me to change the world if I refuse to change and be obedient to His word and His ways.

Say to Him, "forgive my sins and receive me graciously, Lord."

God is clear that when His people turn back to Him He will heal their waywardness, their backsliding and love them freely!  To genuinely turn from sin and obey Him is to live that Christ life. And sometimes we have to be the change to spark others to change.  Sometimes when people see others striving to live that Christ life it encourages and inspires them to do the same. Do you agree?