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Sin makes us turn away from God. When we act against God what usually happens is that we feel a lot of shame or pride. Both emotions are fueled by a hidden sense of guilt that prevents us from saying “I’m sorry”. When we don’t recognize the problem we put it in a bottle and store it in the deepest part of heart. We try to run away from it and desperately try to forget about it. We dismiss the problem as a “small thing”. However it festers, grows, and eventually breaks out of the bottle and starts to consume our heart. Given time it will manifest in the way we act and think. Suddenly the sin has a firm grasp on our life. We’re chained down and enslaved to it.
Problems like these can’t be solved overnight. It can’t be removed by a psychologist in one session or through one Eureka moment. It’s a limitation that all humans have and when we reach this point the only one who can take away all that pain, suffering, guilt, greed, pride, lust, or whatever festered in our hearts is God’s grace. There are consequences to our actions but there is still salvation.
In Hosea 2:16-23, we read about how God restores Israel after they turn from him.
“In that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband, you will no longer call me my master. I will remove the names of the Balls from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked. In that day I will make a convenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the ground.
Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land so that all may lie down in safety. I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness and you will acknowledge the Lord. In that day I will respond,” declares the Lord- “I will respond to the skies and they will respond to the earth.; and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.
I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘not my loved one’. I will say to those called ‘not my people’, ‘you are my people’, and they will say, ‘you are my God”.
God sees the depths of our hearts and He knows what’s there and yet He still loves us. He sees what we can’t — He sees the festering sins clinging on to our souls like cancer and yet He who cannot stand sin makes the effort to extend His hand. I just feel so blessed to serve a God who can embrace that which he hates the most (sin). Truly Christianity is not about what we do to reach God but how God went down to save us.
Note: “You see the depths of my heart” is from the lyrics of the song Indescribable by Chris Tomlin
