Don't Turn back!

All of us go through painful times in life.  We all share the common experiences of loss, hurt, sorrow, tragedy, grief, and hardship; but the sun rises to break midnight's dark grip on the day. 

The rainbow only shows after the rainstorm.  

When coming out of a tough stretch in life, how eager are you to enter into another time of testing?  Or do you desire to embrace the light that is flickering at the end of your tunnel?  Of course the natural instinct is to leave behind the dark times and relish the newfound peace and calm of the blessed times.  We must be careful to take this approach as it concerns our sin.

When we sin, it is a dark time in our life.  Living opposite the will of the Lord will never make it onto the highlight reel of any life.  We must seek to confess and forsake our sin.

Why is it then, that we so often return again and again to our sin?

Purposing not to turn back is not enough.  Simply have a desire or intention to not backslide cannot sustain one in the fulfillment of that wish.  It has been said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  We must have a plan and proceed in the strength of the Lord to ensure that we do not turn back to our sin.

The first thing we must do is see our sin how God sees our sin- vile and wicked.

We have become soft on sin.

We must utilize the mirror of Scripture to reflect back just how dirty our sin really is.  Go to Scripture each day to bathe in it and renew your spirit.

Additionally, we must flee from sin.  We must plan purposefully prepare to "get away" from sin.  In my school building, we have a procedure that tells us how to exit the building in the event of a fire.  That plan allows us to "get away" from the flames safely.  

We must allow Scripture to be our emergency escape plan from sin.

Finally, we must remember how bad it was when we were in our sin.  We must not allow ourselves to forget how low we were when God reached down into a miry pit to save us.  We must not forget how low we sink whenever we revisit our sin.  Just as we do not wish to return to times of personal tragedy or hardship, let us resolve to abstain from turning back to our sin.