Just Stop It!
// July 30th, 2008 // Christian Living, Music
So, it’s been forever since I have written, but I promise I haven’t forgotten about the blog…just been VERY busy. I was reading Beth Moore’s blog and came across an encouragement she had for women, but one I think pertains to all of us. She says that she understands:
…misguided desires for the kind of empathy that pats them [women] on the head and says, “Who could blame you? Go right ahead.”
Sometimes we just need to STOP IT. Just plain stop it. We don’t need to keep praying over it. We don’t need to keep deliberating it. We don’t need one last shot at it. We don’t need five more years of counseling over it. We flat need to stop it. Like, for instance,
- If we’re married and we’re flirting with somebody at work (calling it harmless), we need to stop it.
- And, Lord have mercy, if any of us are having affairs, we need to stop it NOW. With every second that goes by, the consequences are mounting. Please do not let the enemy trick you into thinking you’re getting away with it. You’re not. Don’t rationalize it. Don’t tell me what a jerk your husband is and how you’re finally in love for the first time. Get some fear of God and stop it.
- If we’re being a brat about something, we need to stop it.
- If we’re still punishing somebody for what they did to us, we need to stop it. Enough is enough. Let God deal with them.
- If we’re trying to do God’s job with somebody, we need to stop it.
No Scripture says it more succinctly and exactly than Isaiah 1:16b: “Stop doing wrong.” Hear the voice of God say, “I’ve warned you and warned you and warned you. STOP IT.”
This stood out to me today because I think too many times we try to justify our sin or excuse it because of what we are going through or what we have been through, but in reality sin is sin. There is no excuse for sinning EVER. We are too quick to turn to the world’s remedies of counseling (not that there is anything wrong with counseling )and self-help that we use those things as justifiers to say we are doing something about our sin when in reality we just need to STOP.
What do you think about this? Is she being too simplistic? Or is this simply truth that’s hard to swallow? There are some addictions and sin patterns that are hard to just quit, but at the same time I think there is something to be said for turning away from sin. Anyone want to weigh in on this?
[tags]beth moore, sin, just stop it[/tags]
She is not being simplistic. However, merely suppressing the desire for sin by scripture memorization, increased church duties to distract ourselves, or whatever coping mechanism will not work to stop sin. We may redirect our behavior a while, that’s all.
We will never fix or even improve our old natures. As long as self is our identity, we will eat the fruit of self …
no matter what we mouth about our devotion or needs.
We must recognize we choose sin because we love ourselves as an idol.
Yes, stop sin, by fully identifying with the Spirit of Jesus within. Worship Him as God. (Enjoyed your recent post on this, Ben.) Live riding the Living Water of His righteousness flowing from His heart through our heart. This is not a cool Christian thing to say. It is the reality of appropriating the power of the Cross over sin that enslaves the old man and the glory of the Resurrection in support of the new nature.
I agree. And the truth is hard to swallow, but that is more glory for God when we accept it.
Often I see people pray for something either to happen or to stop, but then they take no action towards that result.
I believe in prayer, but sometimes we let ourselves get in the way of our own prayers.
For example, If you know God wants you to quit smoking, pray for God’s help and especially his comfort when the withdrawals occur. THEN, throw away your smokes and do not buy more. Even use the gum to help curb your impulses, but trust God to get you through it.
If God intended everything to be painless and easy it would. And there wouldn’t be much purpose or chance to bring glory to God.
I think one of the keys here is to “Get some fear of God.” Along with the above comments of worshiping God, etc., there is real power in that fear.
I have found it literally impossible to keep on sinning once I have asked the Lord for, well, the fear of the Lord. All of the sudden committing the sin that yesterday I felt I was getting away with has become a HUGE DEAL. Borderline cursing has become out of the question. Reading morally questionable literature–out the window.
I didn’t know you could even ask for that or that you SHOULD ask for it until my pastor said one time that he started asking for it, as it says in Proverbs–the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Well, I can see the practical applications of that staring me right in the face now that I have some fear of the Lord. Simply put, it is FOOLISH to think that we can sin and get away with it. It’s wisdom for our spiritual, emotional, and physical health to fear the Lord.
Our current culture, including believers, have lost, or never understood, “the fear of the LORD”. We also have a watered down idea of what is sin. I’ve been to churches that don’t even preach on sin or the sin nature of man. How can this be? How have we come to “rationalize” sin? God’s word very explicitly explains sin and how God deals with sin. We live in an age, very much like Babylon, where anything goes. Nothing is right or wrong, everything is acceptible. We’ve lost our ability to hear, or have chosen to ignore, what God says about sin. Why? We don’t want to hear it – we want to be our own gods – live life our own way and we don’t want to feel “guilty” about anything – and, I’m not talking about the world – I’m talking about believers… We should be making a difference in the world; how can we, when we’re no different than the world…