What exactly is your understanding of sin? Is it when you do something you know you weren't supposed to do or doing something extremely evil or just simply disobeying religious laws? According to the dictionary, the term sin "is an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law" In my own understanding, the word divine law has to be the laws given to us by God via the Bible. We tend to determine what is sinful and what is not. Although the Bible clearly states what is right and wrong.
One question I always ask myself is if we are made in Gods image, how is it that we are imperfect and continue to sin with ease? Honestly, I cannot fathom the idea behind it. I mean we live in a world of sin and there is absolutely nobody that is perfect on earth. We are all prone to sin and do things that are displeasing to man and God. This is mans greatest weakness; the struggle to do good. Ecclesiastes 7:20 "not a single person on earth is good and never sins" This just shows how sin innately lives in us even from the minute we were born. There's a verse that explains perfectly what I am trying to say. It goes like this "The trouble with me is that I am all too human, a slave to sin, I don't really understand myself for I want to do what is right but i don't do it, instead I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong, it is sin living in me that does it" Romans7:14-17. Whenever I read this verse over and over again, it just makes more and more sense. We are imperfect because the power of sin lives inside of us as it is impossible to have a life without sin. Furthermore, when we sin and recognise our doings are impure i.e our conscience tells us that what we have done is wrong. This is good as it means that we accept our wrongs and a part of us did not mean to sin but the sin that is innately in us controls majority of our actions. We can't control it because it is part of our nature.
The reason why I wanted to write about this is because my biggest struggle is dealing with sin. I don't know what your struggle is; It may be lying, cheating, stealing, gossiping, having a bad temper or even jealousy. The truth is everyone has a side that could be categorized as sinful. In my opinion, I don't think God expects perfection from us because he knows us inside out. Before we sin he even knows what we are about to do that is why he is referred to as the Omniscient God. The issue is not the fact that we sin, but what we do once we know that we have done something wrong.
We have always been taught that when you do something wrong you apologize or repent. However, in my case it's the weirdest thing. I simply run away from dealing with the fact that I am not perfect and I am a sinner just like everyone else. I run away from confessing my sins because I'm probably ashamed and feel like I am not worthy enough to even talk to God. This is the worst mind-set to ever have! I always felt like once I've done something wrong that's it, God is probably done with me and tired of dealing with my crap right? WRONG.
Now I see things differently when we do something that goes against Gods will. Yes, He would probably be upset about it, but instead of running away and not wanting to deal with the problem, I think He wants us to come to Him and just spill out the problem. I like to think it's like talking to a best friend whereby there is NOTHING that can turn Him against his own creation. "Nothing can ever separate us from Gods love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow...can separate us from Gods love" Romans 8:38. How deep can this love be? Think about it, reread the verse, let it sink in. "Absolutely Nothing can turn Him away from us" So we could be the biggest sinner on the planet, but He is still willing to accept us even when people reject us. It is beyond encouraging to know that regardless of our imperfections, there is actually a God who chooses to forgive us, and love us unfailingly. When I was much younger, people would always tell me "oh Jesus loves you blah blah" and I'd say "yeah, tell me something new", because it was something people always said, so I never saw it as anything big. To be honest, I don't think I ever understood how powerful that love they talked about really was until recently.
There is so much that we do and a part of us KNOWS that it is wrong; call it your conscience or the Holy spirit, the important thing is that we recognise that what we are doing is wrong. The next step is the hardest step, which is simply talking to God about our weaknesses that pull us to sin. I've decided that I cant run away from the things I do because God sees all and I would only be deceiving myself.
A friend told me he felt empty when he was going through some things, but the minute he started praying, he felt like that emptiness was being filled with some sort of inner peace which is the greatest feeling ever. I can relate to what he said because, whenever I do something I know goes against what I am supposed to stand for, I feel so empty and worthless; like I can never change. I have made up my mind that in order to move forward, I cant keep thinking like that so neither should you. When you do something wrong that goes against whatever you believe and you may not know how to handle it, don't run away from it; The solution is to Pray. I mean literally have a conversation with God about everything and anything, trust me it works. "In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly you will find me" Jeremiah 30:12.
Stay Blessed and inspired,
Zephia Ovia
