Spiritual Sinkhole
15-Nov-10 (updated 3-Mar-14)
Ever feel like you’re stuck in a spiritual sinkhole? Keep fighting the same sins only to be defeated time after time? Do you beat yourself up for not being able to overcome your sin nature? I’ve got a word of encouragement for you.
As long as we have our earthly bodies, we will have a sin nature to contend with (Jer 17.9, 1 Jn 1.8). Even the great Apostle Paul struggled with this, explaining:
For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in 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. – Rom 7.18-20
However, for anyone who has put their faith in Christ for eternal salvation & life everlasting, you have powerful weapons to deal with sin. Primarily, when you placed your faith in Christ, you were permanently sealed with the Holy Spirit of God (Eph 1.13-14). One of the functions of the Holy Spirit is to convict & convince us of our sin (Jn 16.8). Therefore, if you sin in some way or keep struggling with a particular sin, but are aware of & hate the fact that you do it, this is actually encouraging because it means the Holy Spirit is working in your life. It is the Holy Spirit warring against your sinful nature (Rom 7.21-24, Jas 4.5). If that didn’t happen – if sin didn’t bother you – it would be concerning. The question is: What do you do next?
Right Move: In that moment, we must acknowledge our inadequacy (Jn 15.5) – it is useless to try to claw your way out of the sinkhole on your own. Then, we can ask for God’s forgiveness & help. In other words, this is sanctification in action – repent & move upward, relying on God (Php 4.13). In order to do this, we must be equipped with the truth of God that He reveals to us in Scripture. There, we can learn something new or be reminded of foundational truths like assurance of salvation, forgiveness or God’s mercy & grace.
Wrong Move: Stay there, get stuck on failure & focus on one’s self. That is right where the devil would have us stay – where we begin to feel like defeated “bad” Christians & lose sight of our justification (salvation status) & access to instant forgiveness (1 Jn 1.9) – hence the need to be regularly refreshed with the Word.
“Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to live in us envies intensely? But He gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” – Jas 4.5-7
As long as we have our earthly bodies, we will have a sin nature to contend with (Jer 17.9, 1 Jn 1.8). Even the great Apostle Paul struggled with this, explaining:
For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in 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. – Rom 7.18-20
However, for anyone who has put their faith in Christ for eternal salvation & life everlasting, you have powerful weapons to deal with sin. Primarily, when you placed your faith in Christ, you were permanently sealed with the Holy Spirit of God (Eph 1.13-14). One of the functions of the Holy Spirit is to convict & convince us of our sin (Jn 16.8). Therefore, if you sin in some way or keep struggling with a particular sin, but are aware of & hate the fact that you do it, this is actually encouraging because it means the Holy Spirit is working in your life. It is the Holy Spirit warring against your sinful nature (Rom 7.21-24, Jas 4.5). If that didn’t happen – if sin didn’t bother you – it would be concerning. The question is: What do you do next?
Right Move: In that moment, we must acknowledge our inadequacy (Jn 15.5) – it is useless to try to claw your way out of the sinkhole on your own. Then, we can ask for God’s forgiveness & help. In other words, this is sanctification in action – repent & move upward, relying on God (Php 4.13). In order to do this, we must be equipped with the truth of God that He reveals to us in Scripture. There, we can learn something new or be reminded of foundational truths like assurance of salvation, forgiveness or God’s mercy & grace.
Wrong Move: Stay there, get stuck on failure & focus on one’s self. That is right where the devil would have us stay – where we begin to feel like defeated “bad” Christians & lose sight of our justification (salvation status) & access to instant forgiveness (1 Jn 1.9) – hence the need to be regularly refreshed with the Word.
“Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to live in us envies intensely? But He gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” – Jas 4.5-7
Naturally speaking, sinkholes occur most commonly when underground layers of rock, such as limestone, are dissolved by groundwater or by seepage from surface water sources and form large caves that eventually collapse. Interestingly, this is a good supernatural analogy of what can happen in our spiritual lives. The truths of God’s Word are like the layers of rock that we build our lives upon & base decisions on. When God's truth about a particular area gets eroded away from our minds by our suppressing it with sin (Rom 1.18), conforming to the wrong crowd (1 Cor 15.33), neglecting God’s Word (Hos 4.6, Pr 19.2) or by letting the good & bad things of the world drown it out (Mt 13.20-22), we are in danger of encountering a sinkhole.
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However, whenever we fall in the hole of our own sin & inadequacy, but humbly acknowledge it to God, He will lift us out by overflowing it with His grace! So when you’re on your spiritual road & find yourself in a sink hole, call the D.O.T. – Department of Truth & get it filled in with the solid rock of God’s Word! Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. - Rom 12.2
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"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” – Jesus in Mt 7.24-27
"God's demand for perfection need not discourage you in the least in your present attempts to be good, or even in your present failures. Each time you fall He will pick you up again. And He knows perfectly well that your own efforts are never going to bring you anywhere near perfection." - C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity
"God's demand for perfection need not discourage you in the least in your present attempts to be good, or even in your present failures. Each time you fall He will pick you up again. And He knows perfectly well that your own efforts are never going to bring you anywhere near perfection." - C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity
Praise the LORD, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. - Ps 103.1-5 |
Related Pages
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As a car fan, a tragic example of a sinkhole is the one that occurred at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky on February 12, 2014. 8 of the Vettes in the Skydome exhibit area were swallowed up as the floor collapsed into the sinkhole.
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