Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” (John 14:6, NLT)
Imagine you are getting married, right. And before your big (or small) wedding day, your future spouse comes up to you and says, “Well, if this doesn’t work out, I have someone else.” How would you feel? I know I’d probably be angry, maybe sad, but definitely doubtful because, what’s the point of marrying someone who is already thinking another?
All the times I have heard what Jesus told Thomas in John 14:6 has been in the context of Jesus is the only way to God. I completely believe that! There is no other way to God except Jesus. But, since yesterday, I have been thinking about something else, and this is something that I can’t claim credit to because I believe that it was the Holy Spirit who put this on my heart.
So, I was just laying on my bed yesterday and I was thinking: why do I still sin? I know that Jesus has saved me by His grace and mercy alone (Ephesians 2:8), I know that He loves me (John 3:16) and I genuinely love Him, I know that I am a new creation (2nd Corinthians 5:17)… you know, those things that Christians ought to believe when they are saved… But, even though this is the new reality I live in, I still find myself committing sin, be it lying, not reading His Word, not loving my neighbor, idolatry, sexual immorality, drunkenness, not obeying my parents, slander; any sin that the Bible talks about, really– because if you break one, you break all (James 2:10-11).
Anyway, as I was contemplating these things in my room, something told me: don’t make sin an option. It was as clear as hearing laurel! I kid you not. But I didn’t want to think too deeply about it at the time. So I watched Spongebob instead hahahaha!
The Holy Spirit has a way of communicating with us, you know, because I’m still thinking about it: why is sin still an option for me? Why do I still see lying as a possible means of getting what I want? Why do I still see manipulation of as a means of getting people to do the things I want them to do? Why do I still allow these thoughts to encroach on my space and I act surprised that I fall into temptation?
How do I not make sin an option? I know the answer is Jesus, but I don’t know how to make that a practical thing in my life. But I am thinking of Paul’s admonition to the Romans, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice– the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2, NLT).
This is all new to me, so I am still learning it and internalizing it. But, I have been telling myself this: Jesus is the only option I have. When I want to pick up that phone and text that boy to come over, Jesus is the only option. When I want to cuss out my dad and not honor him, Jesus is the only option. When I want to go to watch another episode of Spongebob instead of reading my Bible, Jesus is the only option I have.
I thank God that my mind is being transformed by the Holy Spirit– it shows me that God is still working on me! This is a new way of thinking and I am excited to see how my relationship with God will change.
But, what do you think? How can I make Jesus the only option? How can I make sin not an option? Let me know what you think 🙂
God For Everyday 
How can I make sin not an option?
“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world…”
I feel like with certain things happening in the world we unintentionally get into a mindset of everyone else is doing it. We know we shouldn’t do it and it hurts when we do it but I think we try to comfort ourselves by telling ourselves, well they do it too. I think when we feel we are the only one who has done the sin we fell super ashamed but when we find out others have done it too we feel a sense of relief and we shouldn’t.
“but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect”
Example: let’s say you took an exam and you got a 65 on it, you’ll feel like crap. But, you find out the class average was a 70 and it doesn’t make you feel as a bad. Here is the thing, regardless of whether your grade was a few points close to the class average your dad is not happy because he wanted you to get 100. Now we could look at it from our classmates perspective that “hey at least I tried and I did almost as good as everyone else 😊” or we could look at it from the dad perspective ” it wasn’t good enough, and you didn’t do your best”
Now that dad just wants WHAT IS BEST FOR US (The 100/100 regardless of class avaerage). Now replace that dad with God. God wants what is best for us regardless of what others are… you know.
Ezekiel 36: 26 – 27
When we sin we feel it in our heart and It hurts, it doesn’t make us feel good at all. And instead of going to the doctor(Jesus) for help, we see others hurting too but they seem fine, so I guess I’ll be fine to. And we don’t treat the problem and leave ourselves open to get injured (sin) again. [ Hopefully that metaphor made sense ] and I feel that is why sin ends up still being an option for us
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That’s a very interesting analogy! Thanks! I especially like the part where you said God wants what’s best for us regardless of what others are. And I think the hard part is going to the “doctor”, like you said. I feel like that’s the only way to not make sin an option. But when we do do something bad, we let the shame isolate us, you know…. which is unfortunate because God still wants the BEST for us regardless…
In the end I think it’s a learning process and, you know…
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There was an addiction I was dealing with. And it made me feel horrible but when thing I used to remind myself to “help” the sitation, was that other kids my age are doing it too.
I told a brother in Christ about it and find out that he use to struggle with it but had STOPPED and that changed my mindset on it. I had even told some sister in Christ about it so that they can help me pray about it
What I learned was, not everyone my age was doing it, some have battled it before and overcame it thanks to God, and if God can help them than I can surely overcome with God helping me and I know be believes in me 😊
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I like that! Yeah, we are never alone.
Literally, Jesus is the answer, no matter what!
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