Laden with Guilt and Full of Fears, take 4

I promise this will be my last entry written on this song...unless I decide to write another one. Those who imagine me at my computer doing work with this song playing over and over probably have a pretty good picture. There's just one more tidbit that I feel like my blog will be fundamentally incomplete unless I expound upon it.

All of us have things that we enjoy and like to do. Sometimes (indeed, quite often) we find outselves enamored with something that is sinful. Whether it be dishonesty, theft, adultery, or neglecting our covenant relationship with our Lord, we all too often find ways to commit treason against our Lord and blaspheme Him in spits of His redemption to us. All too often, I see the struggle where we will fight tooth and nail against a pet sin with which we struggle, and indeed find some sort of victory...only to replace the defeated sinful tendency with another sinful tendency.

It often seems like we have a thirst for sin that simply cannot be satiated (and indeed, should not be regardless). Sinfulness in our lives begets more sinfulness, but fighting against that sinfulness can often also beget more sinfulness. Like the cigarette smoker who must employ the use of chewing gum to aid him in ridding himself of his niccotine addiction, so we often go to the spiritual department store of sinfulness and return one sin in exchange for another.

This should not be, but it seems to be the endless pattern for many a Christian. The answer, of course, is nothing new...repent and return to the Cross of Christ. When we fight against a sin, we need to not only to fight it, but to fill the void that its departure creates with our Lord and Savior. It is not enough simply to not put our focus on sinful desires and passions, we must transfer that focus to Christ, and focus on living for Him and communing with Him. Of course, we do this by continually seeking Christ through the Scriptures ("the field where hidden lies the pearl of price unknown") and through prayer. Through this we can reduce our desires for sinfulness.

"Here consecrated water flows to quench my thirst of sin." (Watts)

Luke