With Fear and Trembling by Jason G. Lutz

My purpose with this devotion has always been to encourage and uplift believers; to exhort each reader to God’s greater Good.  So I should probably clarify my recent line of devotions dealing with sin and repentance.  Quite simply I have come under the Conviction that if we are not denying our sin and turning to the Father in repentance we simply are not moving the world in a positive direction.  Let me say it again, if we do not attempt to quit our own sin we do not make the world a better place.

I am going to speculate that I am not the only one who likes to add up my good works whether these be my beliefs, my charitable deeds, or my kind nature and weigh them against my sins and see myself as a pretty great person.  Yet how quickly can sin damage all of this? An example: years ago while managing others I was in a particularly bad mood and I was looking for a fight.  So, when the smallest mistake happened I let loose my anger undeservedly on an employee.  I had spent months building trust with a fellow believer only to destroy it in a moment and I never got it back.  My witness was broken.Can we not see the impossibility of outweighing our sin nature?  Do we not know that our self-righteousness will always lose when we try to overcompensate with works to protect our favorite sins?  Do we really think a modern system of indulgences by holding the right opinions and donating to the right causes will work any better than the old system of buying grace?

In this we have to understand that the temptation to sin is not eliminated in a moment.  It takes sacrifice of a high opinion of self coupled with admitting that we have a sin problem, and the renewal of our minds by the Spirit through fellowship with believers, the signing of hymns, and study of the Word.  It takes persistent prayer so that our hearts know the love of Christ, as the love of Christ is entirely and completely without sin.  It takes recognizing that it is the Father Himself working in the inner person to disturb us is our sin as He wants it out of us.  And yes, it takes developing a desire to please, with fear and trembling, Jehovah.