That's not to say that you should condemn anyone just because they've sinned, remember you are a sinner also; we all are, and that's all the more reason to encourage the people you meet each day.
We all carry a cross. We walk through life with burdens and stresses, addictions, sorrows and all these things come together to make up the story of our lives. Sometimes the burdens that we carry; we carry them alone, we have no one to share them with because we're embarrassed by them, because we're afraid what others may think of us if we share those deep scars with them. We're afraid that if we tell someone they will use it against us.
Let me encourage you today because if you have sinned; forgiveness is awaiting you. If you have sorrow; joy is awaiting you. If you have stress; rest is awaiting you. If you have a yoke; freedom is awaiting you. You just have to have the courage to claim it.
How do we claim it? We pray. We lift our troubles to the one that created us, we confess our sins to him and then, we let it go, knowing that he has redeemed us, knowing that his grace is sufficient.
While we can all relate to sinfulness, there is someone in the Bible who could help us understand sin a bit more.
St Paul says this in Romans 7:14-25;
"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer myself who do it, but it is sin living in me, that is, my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in me waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord."
In this excerpt, St Paul is speaking of sin, and what he says basically is that there are two parts of us; the part of us that is a slave to God's law and a part of us that is a slave to sin. The part of us that is a slave to sin does sinful things and the part of us that is a slave of God does not do sinful things.
What he says is that if we agree that God's laws are good (ie, we know that what we're doing is wrong), but we don't do the good things we want to do but instead we do the sinful things that we don't want to do, it is the part of us that are slaves to sin that is comitting sin.
So while we want to do what is right, we are always tempted to do the wrong things and thus we're always at war.
Of course, the price of sin is death, however, we are delivered through the blood of Jesus Christ so we don't have to feel guilty or ashamed of our sins. We were forgiven even before we comitted them, of course in order to claim that promise we must confess our sins to God who is merciful and forgives us.
God forgives us all once we own up to our sins, even if we make the same mistakes hundreds of times.
I pray today, that God listens to your prayers and helps you to overcome the guilt and shame of sin and that you will be comforted and freed from your pains for as long as you live.
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