Daily Devotional

Praise God that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and that we stand forgiven if we simply put our faith and trust in Him as our salvation. But we still sin, we still disobey, we still go astray. What gives? I thought we are saved and good to go, why do we still sin? Well we are forgiven, but as long as we are in this fallen corrupt state on this side of heaven, we are not free of our fallen human nature, and our propensity to sin and go our own way. There is a difference between our salvation and our sanctification. Our salvation was accomplished on the cross by Jesus Christ and fulfilled when we place our trust in Him. But our sanctification is the process of us becoming more like Christ, a process that will only be completed after this earthly life.

In the meantime the author in Acts implores us, that when we sin, we should repent, meaning to acknowledge and turn away from, our sin. We need to recognize when we sin and disobey God and turn from those ways and back toward God. God is still holy and cannot tolerate sin, and therefore sin in our life causes a rift, a separation from God and His goodness. There is a saying that says “if you don’t feel close to God, guess who moved.” Hint: it was you. In order to enjoy the fullness of our relationship with our Heavenly Father we need to be in a right relationship with Him, and we cannot do that while actively living in sin. Only by confessing our sin and turning from it, or repenting, can we restore that relationship and closeness with God.

This is the process of sanctification, possible through the work of the Holy Spirit within us convicting us of sin in our life, and calling us to turn from it. If you feel uncomfortable when you sin, that’s a good thing, that is the conviction of the Holy Spirit. If you don’t feel that, you should be concerned about your true relationship with God. Remember, God knows we are not perfect, He knows we have a fallen nature. It’s why He sent His Son to save us, cause He knew we couldn’t save ourselves. But that doesn’t mean we have nothing to do. As His saved children we should strive to be more like Him and follow His ways and that means turning from our sin, when we do sin. So that our relationship with God may be restored and times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

Amen.

New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.