Getting Out of the Sin Management Business

I’m currently about halfway through the book Filled Up, Poured Out: How God’s Spirit Can Revive Your Passion and Purpose by Mark O. Wilson (Wesleyan Publishing House) which released this month.  This book is literally jam-packed with helpful thoughts on experiencing personal revival and refreshing. I thought this excerpt might be helpful to someone reading today…

We must empty out before we can fill up.  We will not enjoy Christ’s fullness until we first experience the emptiness…

…Willful sin is the first place to start emptying. We must declare war on any action, thought, attitude, word or habit that displeases the Lord.

Without conscious effort, we easily slide into the sin management business, harboring and justifying pet sins, rather than confessing and repenting of them. The result is a sinning religion — a state of spiritual disobedience — that looks a whole lot more like the world, the flesh and the devil than like Jesus. The consuming concern of sin management is: “How much sinning can I get away with? That’s the wrong question.

A wealthy lade interviewed three men for a chauffeur position. “How close can you get to the edge of a cliff without falling off? she asked. The first guy said, “Twelve inches.” The second guy said, “Six inches.” The third guy said, “I’ll stay as far from the cliff as I can.” He got the job.

When staying close to the cliff appeals more to us than staying close to Christ, we are trying to manage sin. Spiritual victory is never found along the fuzzy edges of compromise. God calls us to steer clear of the cliff altogether.

Holding on to cherished sins is like keeping pet rattlesnakes in your closet. Sooner or later, you’re going to get bitten. Careless, compromising Christianity is a false substitute for the real thing. “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not.” (Rom 6:1-2 NKJV)

Empty the obvious! Refuse to make excuses for sinning. You might say, “That’s just the way I am.” But is it Christ’s best for you? Weren’t you created to live above that? Some say, “Follow your heart.” The trick part is that hearts are deceitful (Jer 17:9 NKJV The heart is deceitful above all things,and desperately wicked;who can know it?)

I once confronted a confused young man who left his wife for another woman. I said he was sinning and needed to get right with God. “No, no!” he protested. “That’s not true. I prayed about it and God told me it’s alright.”

The poor dude must have been praying to another deity, perhaps the false idol of self-indulgence. He was following his heart, but he certainly wasn’t hearing from heaven on that one.

Satan, the deceiver, lures us into false assuming it must be true if it feels right. We delude ourselves into thinking that wrong is not so bad in this particular instance. Deep down we still know right from wrong. Justifying bad behavior never justifies us before almighty God. Scripture clearly calls us to renounce our sins rather than excuse them.

~Mark O. Wilson; Filled Up, Poured Out pp. 42-44