Guilty

Just when it seems like things are going well for me spiritually, I screw up. Sin is so sneaky. And so persistent. Just when I think I've finally got a handle on a particular temptation, BOOM! It comes back at me again and this time it brings its big brother with it.

I used to imagine that sin was like this giant weed that we continually hack at. And when we finally do manage to cut it down we find all these little weeds growing underneath it. But as it turns out that big ol' weed that we sometimes do manage to cut down has deep roots sometimes, and we can't take it out by our power alone.

In Orthodoxy it's stated that Jesus didn't come to just save us from death. Praise God that He did! But, more than that, to save us from our sins. Not only at some future time when we're facing the judgment seat of God, but right here in the present, everyday life that we live. Christ came to overcome our daily sins so that we may become more like him. Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, Christ said. Wow, that is so hard.

Please pray for me, a sinner.

I will give them a new heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them; and they shall be my people, and I shall be their God.

Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all transgressions which you have committed against me and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God; so turn, and live.

A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you ...

I will put my Spirit within you and you shall live ...

(Ezekiel 11:19-20,18:30-32, 36:26-27, 37:14; cf. Psalm 51:10; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Isaiah 57:15-18; Joel 2:28-29)