Serious stuff and calling "sin" what it is.

I'm not good at everything and I'm not good at every relationship I have in my life.  I wish I was but I can never be, so I have choose the relationships that are the most important for me excel in.  My relationship with God, my relationship with my husband, my relationship with my children, my relationship with my parents;  in that exact order.  Everything else is important also, but it still remains in the "everything else" category.  There are alot of "important" things in my life that have to be placed in the "everything else" category.  Honestly, there are alot of things that are important to me, but just not as important as the most important things, and I can't do it all. 

There has to come a time in life where we get serious about what's important to us and we have to stopp being stretched too thin, by not identifying the "most important" things. We cannot do anything well when we are stretched too thin.  Honestly, there are some things that I really want to do well in this lifetime.  I want to lead my kids into a healthy, abundant relationship with Christ.  I want to be my husband's support in achieving His God-given purposes in life.  I want to use my unique gifts to to be the best daughter, the best wife, the best mom, and the best businesswoman I can be.  I don't want to achieve anybody else's  "best".  I want to achieve my own best, based on what God has deposited into me.

Let me say something about the bible, in light of the issues we deal with in today's culture. There are things that God tells us "not to do" in the bible. 
1.  He tells us "not to do" certain things because He knows we will be tempted to do these things.  God would not instruct us not to do certain things, if He didn't know we would be tempted. When you are tempted to do something that goes blatantly against what God says in His word, don't say to yourself "God made me this way" and don't say "why would God put the desire here, if He didn't want me to act on it".  In the bible, God is like "Look, I know you are going to want to do certain things.  I know you are going to have strong desires that you are going to want to act on, but lemme tell you this; 'don't do it'.  I know you want to, but don't". 

^{James chapter 1   13} Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. ¹⁴ But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

Now don't get me wrong, I am no "good girl".  I myself have sin in my life.  But I don't call my sin something else, I call it what it is.  I don't say "God gave me this desire".  I admit that it's sin, and I'm struggling with it and I ask for God's help.  Sometimes, it takes years of praying before I even see an improvement in areas where I've struggled with sin.  But I know God does deliver me.  Not right away, but over time as I pray and accept God's forgiveness everyday, I grow and I see myself overcoming things that were once overcoming me.  I believe when people don't call the sins in their lives what they are, and instead sugarcoat them by calling them something else, there is a tremendous amount of guilt and condemnation as a result.  But I believe when we call the sin in our lives "sin", the floodwaters of God's forgiveness is able to enter our hearts.  It's like the scripture below:

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

 

This says, just as plain as day, that you don't have to get your life straight to get your relationship straight with God.  He is ready to love you right where you are.  But how will you receive or even know that you need that love if you are lying to yourself about where you really are in your life.  Confession of sin is not about God keeping a list of all our sins, He actually erases our sins.  Confession is important because you can only receive the extravagant love of God, poured out in your life, if you call "sin" what it is, in  your own life.  Don't blame people, don't say God made me this way.  Just call it what it is, admit you struggle with it, admit the bible says it's wrong, and ask God for help and know that He loves you right where you are and at the same time, over time He will help you overcome.  

^{1 John Chapter 1  9} If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

Honestly, this scripture above is about you confessing your sin to God, not other people. What does cleansing "from all unrighteousness" mean.  It doesn't mean making you perfect.  It doesn't mean removing sin completely from your life.  It means that when you are honest with God and with yourself you are no longer "unright" with God.  It is confessing your sin and accepting forgiveness through Christ that makes your right with God.  Unrighteousness means being "unright" with God.  You get your life right with God by saying to God that I need to be saved because I'm a sinner and I need forgiveness.  After that you are made right with God through the blood that Jesus shed for you on the cross, because He paid the penalty for every sin you will commit and have committed and are committing right now.  But how can you receive it if you don't confess that you need it by confessing your sin???  Jesus came to save sinners.  Even to grow once you become a Christian, you have to always be honest with yourself and God about the sin in your life, so it won't have control over your life.