Sinclination

It's always fun to play a bit with words. One of the things most apparent about us human beings is our tendency to sin. It is said that we are sinful in the womb, and though I would probably choose to debate that idea, I believe in the notion of a sin nature that we are born with, dating way back to the original sin.

If we honestly look into our behaviors and into our hearts, we have to agree that we sin. It isn't that we are guilty of the BIG sins, necessarily, but there are countless "respectable" sins, to borrow a phrase, that we deal with daily. These are, it seems to me, the ones that many find most difficult to really repent on. These sins just keep popping up, sometimes without our actually intending them.

Now if we believe that God truly abhors all sin, and we wish to worship Him with our lives, this Sinclination creates an issue. It gets even more complicated when we realize that God knows us completely- He even knows that we are going to sin before the sin occurs.
He doesn't accept any sin; yet, and this is the key, He provided for a way that our sins could be forgiven. He provided for a way for us to be in a relationship with Him through the atoning death of His son, Jesus, on the cross.

It was and is the ONLY way that our sinclination could ever have been dealt with- He became, through a plan devised before the beginning of time, the one to save us from the wrath He holds against evil, darkness, sin. He provided a light, life and an answer that only He could provide. We are blessed beyond words that He has initiated this life-saving and life-changing outreach.

So it is also important, I believe, to understand that even after we accept this Gift, come to believe upon His son and become 'sons' adopted into the church family of God, we will continue to battle this sinclination. We need to work with the Holy Spirit to guard against the problem of sinning, but we also need to be secure in the fact that God has forgiven our sins, past, present, and yes, future. They were forgiven, are forgiven and will be forgiven because God has chosen to love us sinners, not our sins.

Sinclination- a problem, a reality and a battle. Alone, we will not make a lot of progress. With the Spirit, we are on a journey to eradicate sin, a journey of sanctification, a journey of love.

Praise our God!