Snowball Effect

Romans 1:29 - Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.

When we sin, it has the potential to snowball on us if we are not careful.  Ideally, we would rather not sin, but since that isn't possible we have to be careful not to allow them to get worse and worse.

In this section of Romans, Paul brings up the issue of idolatry and sexual sin, and how they eventually steamrolled into other sins for the people.  They became apathetic and indifferent towards their behavior, and towards God, and it spiraled out of control.

Now this doesn't mean that if we don't stop sinning that we're going to be out in the streets killing each other.  We don't have to kill someone to be a murderer.  Jesus pointed out in the Sermon on the Mount that if we're angry with someone, we're just as guilty of murder (Matthew 5:21-22).  Well we've all been angry with someone, I'm sure.  The key is to confess and repent of our sins as soon as we spot them and not say, "Oh well since it's too late..."

Peter told us that we needed to get rid of all our evil behavior and crave the spiritual milk that will give us the full experience of our salvation (1 Peter 2:1-2).  While we still have breath in our lungs, we're going to sin from time to time.  At the same time, while we still have that same breath in our lungs, it's not too late to ask for God's forgiveness.  This doesn't mean that we have a license to sin.  The Bible is very clear on that (Romans 6).

I have had some unresolved sin that creeps up from time to time (a lot more often than I would prefer), and I have noticed recently that when it does worm its way into my life, my attitude changes.  Quite a bit too.  I've noticed it the last couple of days that my temper and patience were getting shorter, and I was getting angrier about stupid things faster.  The sin I was really struggling with created a snowball effect that just turned my whole attitude south.

So how do I get over it?  Through training.  I have to train my mind and heart better to recognize that when sins start to creep in, I need to stop them in their tracks right away.  Paul talked about this in his first letter to Timothy.  He said, "Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come" (1 Timothy 4:8).

That is what we are doing.  Training for godliness and righteousness.  We will never achieve it while we're in this world, but in the next one.  While we're here we need to be training for it.  I have heard it said that if you do something for 21 days, it becomes a habit.  What greater habit to have than to pray at the first sign of sin?  I was watching a movie once (I know shocking...).  In the story, a cop had turned in some fellow cops who were bad.  When one of his coworkers got on his case about it, calling him a traitor and all that, he said, "They weren't bad guys, but they compromised and looked the other way once.  When you do that one time, it makes it easier to do it again and again."

That is how we need to be in our prayer life when we recognize unresolved sin creeping in.  Start with prayer once.  Then, when it happens again (and it will!), it becomes easier to spot, and easier to remedy the next time, and the next time.  It will create a snowball effect that leads us closer to God.

Dear Abba Father, thank You for showing me where I am falling short.  I have confessed my sins to You, and ask for Your forgiveness.  I pray for You to give me the strength and wisdom to spot them when they creep in again, so that I may transform my behavior by renewing my mind to stay focused on You.  I pray for those that have unresolved sins as well.  My prayer is that they will realize that it is not to late to lay them to the foot of Your cross, and ask for Your forgiveness.  I pray that we will all do that.  In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen!



God Bless!!!