Jesus comes and picks us up out of the muck and dirt we were lying in before we knew Him.
He cleans us up and stands us on our feet. We are confident before God and free to enjoy a relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Why do so many of us abuse and take for granted this great and free gift by lying back down in the muck?
Jesus loves me just the way I am, is true but it can also be used as an excuse that really says, because He loves me just the way I am, I don’t have to change, so I’ll keep my old life of dirty muck.
Yes! He loves us all just the way we are. He accepts us all just the way we are.
But the whole point of Jesus rescuing us out of our filth and muck is to restore us fully in our relationship with God and teach us to live a life of purity that honors God by following Jesus example–life change is required.
If we deliberately lie back down and wallow in the muck, making excuses to ourselves and everyone else for our wallowing, we get really dirty again. Of course there is forgiveness, always forgiveness. But why live this way? We will never really be happy. Muck and dirt don’t make us happy. They spiral us down into guilt and shame and confused emotions.
What is the muck? It’s our sin. Sin produces more sin and eventually death, James 1:15.
The problem is we love our muck! So we lie back down in the muck.
I’m not talking about falling over by accident. Everyone makes mistakes.
I am talking about deliberately lying back down in the muck. Deliberately sinning–and then making excuses for it.
Our excuses reason away our need to change our lifestyle or behavior. Our excuses become a kind of self-deception so that we give ourselves permission to keep rolling around in the muck. We ‘flatter ourselves too much to be able to detect or hate our own sin (muck)’ Psalm 36:2.
The Amplified puts it this way, ‘betraying our selves into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth’ James 1:22.
Truth: Jesus wants us to stop sinning. If we want to follow Jesus, we shouldn’t tolerate muck in our hearts any longer.
Jesus forgives us of everything but He wants us to turn from our old ways of sin and live a life that honors Him. His words to a woman caught in adultery, ‘I do not condemn you…(now) go and sin no more’ John 8:11.
When we meet Jesus, He says the same to us, sin no more.
He doesn’t tell us to stop sinning without giving us the help we need. The same grace that cleans us up also empowers us to live the way He wants us to live.
Don’t go back to your muck. Don’t lie back down in it. Don’t make excuses for it. Learn to hate muck. Learn to live clean and pure before God.
When we search out God’s Word for His truth’s and store it up in our heart and allow it to change us, it will guide us into the kind of life He wants us to live…
‘How can a young (or old) person stay pure? By obeying your (God’s) Word…Your word (God) I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You’ Psalm 119:9 & 11.
