As you all know from my previous entries, we are all moved in to our new apartment, but the burden of the week has been that we are not yet all moved out of our old one. We thought it was a job that would have been finished in only one or two days, but it has taken all week and we are still not finished preparing the place for our check-out date. This reminds me of our old sin nature that is continually trying to steal the joy of our new life in Christ.

I’ve been giving alot of thought the last few days to the trapping nature of sin. I notice in my own life that there are certain sins I have somehow in my human error labeled as “smaller” sins such as exaggerations, attitudes and laziness. In this light approach to sin I can become trapped in self-deception and calloused toward conviction. Instead I should take care to maintain a very heavy perspective on sin, knowing that it is a deliberate action against God and His Word. I should respond quickly to conviction in repentance and change. I think if this were my approach to sin and repentance I would be much closer to the Lord than I am today. Unfortunately this is probably not just the case for me. I often hear people justifying and excusing their as they brush aside laziness, gossip, lies and attitudes as simply “normal human struggles”.

People blame their struggle with sin on temptation. But Scripture shows us that it is not temptation that is the problem, but our inability to stay focused on Christ. James 1:14 says, “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” This is not just some event that happens upon us. Like the commonly claimed story that I was simply walking along and *boom* Satan was there and I was trapped and eventually sinned! No, James shows us that this is surely not the case. We are tempted and drawn away by our own desires. In one day we constantly want things be it physical–food, pleasure, possessions or maybe non-physical–we desire acceptance, approval, a compliment or some feeling. This is the point at which we must deal with sin. Not at the action or behavior, not the thought or word, but the desire. This is our sin in it’s beginning form–desire.

On Wednesday in our high school Bible study we discussed what it means to be “pure in heart” from Matthew 5. It is not difficult to see the connection between a pure heart and holiness. The very idea of pure makes me think “free from sin”. In my small group we talked some about reading and studying the Bible and how this is important in our pursuit to be free from sin. I asked each girl to share how she is doing with that command and as we went around the table it was clear that we have all been at different places in that regard. Some find it difficult to read at all, some are learning to give up precious sleep in the morning to spend time in the Word and others are somewhere in between. I know that I have been at each place. I remember thinking that the Bible was boring, not reading it at all. I remember a time I was very passionate about the Word and read it with friends and even kept a journal of each thing that challenged or encouraged me from what I read each day. And I have also been at the place where studying the Word was simply on and off. What made it this way? Was it my changing schedule during the different seasons of my life? Was it because I have graduated from school now and must work all day or that I just don’t have time for it? None of these seeming contributors to my not studying the Word are the reason. The reason is that my desire lay elsewhere. And in that same train of thought I have often heard it said of Scripture, “God’s Word will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from God’s Word.”

I’ve been reading this week in Psalm 119 and many verses proclaim clearly that the only way that we can cut the struggles we have with temptation and sin is by immersing ourselves into the Word of God. Verses 9-11 say

Not just hearing it, but doing it. Unfortunately we are often like I am about our old apartment…eventually I will get around to cleaning this place up. We think that eventually we can get around to reading or obeying the Bible. God’s Word does not warrant or even accept such delays in our action. But we won’t ever know what He says to us unless we are more “in” His Word than “out”. I hope that you will pray with me to have a swift obedience to His commands. As the Psalmist says later in Psalm 119 verses 59-60