Feb 10: 1 Kings 21-22, 2 Kings 1-3
There are so many types of sins in my life that I commit repetitively. Over and over again, I fall into these sins and it's so hard to snap out of. You would think that the repetition would bring about awareness and change, but more often than not, I just become numb to it and my pride clouds me from correction.
Ahaziah, son of Ahab, falls into a similar trap. After his father Ahab died, Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper room and injured himself. Ahaziah sends out messengers to seek out answers from idol gods, but Elijah confronts them and sends them back to Ahaziah telling him that he will certainly die. Ahaziah then sends a captain and 50 men to find Elijah and when they do, the captain says, "Man of God, the king says, Come down!" Elijah answers with, "If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!" Fire immediately comes down and consumes the captain and his men. Ahaziah hears this, and for some reason sends another captain and 50 men. Again the same exact thing happens, and the next captain and 50 men are consumed by fire. Ahaziah hears this once more, and sends out a 3rd captain with 50 men. This captain though gets wise and asks Elijah for respect on his life and Elijah follows him to Ahaziah.
This story may seem ridiculous, but are our sins so different? We know the consequences and outcomes of some of these sins we repetitively commit, but go on committing them nonetheless. What can we do to stop this? We can make intentional decisions that keep us away from these sins and temptations. Instead of just saying, oh I'll try harder not to commit this sin, we can think of concrete steps that will help us avoid that situation altogether. Another mentality that can help is that every time these temptations come about, let's not look at it as another chance for us to fail, but another chance for us to resist and show our obedience and faith to God. We can show God that we're willing to make real changes in our habits b/c of the love we have for Him.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
its so hard... to step away from the sin once you're numb to it because you've been repeating it over and over again. it definitely comes with totally surrendering that sin to God. and once we pray to God to take it away and for us to make the stand to, lyk you said, "to resist and show our obedience and faith to God," thats when real changes happen. and out of our love for Him, we will be able to be obedient and faithful.
ReplyDeletethanks andy for such an encouraging entry! :) stay strong!!