Succulents, grass and sin

5… He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it with new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit.

Does this mean that we are now clean from sin and will never sin again? When I look at my own life, I realize that the answer is a loud and clear “no”. There was no movement of the magic wand that would make us never sin again, even if we want to.

It would have been great if we had lost the ability to sin at the time of conversion. Then we wouldn’t have fought so much. But we know very well that this did not happen! Sin is alive and well growing in the lives of many of God’s children.

Lizelle explains sin in a way that everyone can understand:

We moved my succulents. I know when you do that, you will probably lose some.

As he pulled out the weeds that grew profusely after the rains, he could barely see the succulents.

Then I thought to myself, sin is like weeds. If you leave it and do nothing about it, it will take over your life.

How true is this. My lawn was the same. During the winter, the winter grass grew so large that it took over the lawn. The Kikuyu does not like to grow up in the shade and almost died. I had to urgently spray a selective herbicide to kill the winter grass so that the sun could shine on the grass and the kikuyu would gain strength to grow and the grass would turn back to a beautiful green.

Weeds tend to grow anywhere. Even without water. All other plants fight, but the weeds keep growing.

That is what sin does in your life. You don’t even have to take care of it, it keeps growing strong. The problem is that it completely takes over us and kills what God wants for our lives.

Look at the people who allow sin to take over their lives. Not well. They are deeply unhappy.

We cannot just ignore sin in our lives. Before we know it, sin will grow so large that it will take over completely. We must intentionally get rid of sin in ourselves. We must plan not to do it again and then we must get our hands on the equipment necessary to eradicate sin.

And usually when we read about sin, one or two things come to mind. Most likely they are those things that you have to work on. And don’t feel too bad about it; we all struggle with sin in our lives.

Holy Scripture

Titus 3: 3-7

Reflection

What sins are present in your life?

How to get rid of them?

Who needs to help you?

Pray

Father, you know how I fight to get rid of this piece of sin in my life. I’ve tried so many times, but I can’t do it. Show me what to do differently. In the name of Jesus, amen.