11 Feb

Confession!

posted by Andrew Hebert

Over the next few weeks I am going to be very transparent with everyone who may be reading this blog and talk about my biggest personal struggles. Talking about this can sometimes be an embarrassing and hard thing to do. The reason I am doing this is for no other reason than to be an encouragement to someone who might be struggling with the same things with which I have struggled. Hopefully you can get encouragement from Scripture and from the fact that you’re not the only one going through what you’re going through.

One of my biggest struggles is that of repetitive sin. It started when I was a younger. No matter how many times my parents told me not to, and no matter how many times they would discipline me when I disobeyed, I just couldn’t seem to stop dissing my parents (smarting off to them) when they told me to do something that I didn’t want to do. Even though I knew it was wrong, I did it anyway. As life progressed and I got into high school and college, the sins became more serious. Whether it was lying , lust, selfish desires, or pride, I just couldn’t seem to get any victory over my ‘pet’ sins. Does anyone else know what I’m talking about?

My experience reveals the truth of Scripture. Jesus said that whoever commits sin is a slave to sin (John 8:34). That is a great word picture. The idea of being chained up and forced to do the bidding of a master other than self—that’s exactly what happens when we sin. We serve sin and cannot free ourselves from the chains that sin puts on us.

“Therefore if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.” John 8:36 (HCSB)

This seems like a downer except for the fact that Jesus also said that whoever the Son sets free is free indeed (John 8:36), which means Jesus is able to free us from the slavery of sin. Because He died and paid the penalty for my sins and rose from the dead three days later, I can have the victory over sin—not because of anything good in me, but it’s because the same power that raised Jesus back to life is the power that is living in me through the Holy Spirit. So it is no longer me fighting the battle on my own. I have died to myself and asked Jesus to take over and control my life. He then wins the battle and gets all of the praise. All I can do is sit back and thank Him for doing in His power what I cannot do in my own. Although I still struggle with repetitive sin and will until I die, I have found that it is when I am counting on my own strength to resist sin that I mess up. When I constantly rely on God’s strength and the power of the Holy Spirit, He wins the day.

Filed in: Sin

About the Author

Andrew Hebert is a student at Criswell College. He enjoys reading, eating Mexican food, watching the Houston Astros, and listening to any kind of music. He and his wife, Amy, reside in Dallas and are expecting their first child in June.