You know when someone says ‘don’t think of a pink elephant’, and then waits, smiling, while your face contorts and your brain melts out of your ears? That’s sort of like the mental acrobatics you can get yourself in with sin. What do we mean? When you spend all your time thinking about how to stop sinning, how to flee from wrong, how to reject the world the flesh and the devil…sin inevitably becomes the most important thing in your life. Seriously. When avoiding sin because the main thing about your faith, it can take up so much space that you end up with no room for the positive presence of God.
Of course, God loves it when we put our efforts into living His ways, so we’re not talking about abandoning ourselves to rampant debauchery here. But we can get ourselves in circles when we live sanctimoniously avoiding sin, and miss out on the presence of God. The presence of God is a positive thing. A glowing, radiant thing. It’s far, far more than just avoiding bad things. Defeating sin is not the only thing on God’s agenda, it’s just the first thing. The gateway to holiness, which is when you live connected to God and in close constant contact with Him. When you’re filled with wisdom. When you discover your true identity. When you start rejoicing every day, because that’s just what’s inside you now. Want that? You can’t have it if you spend every waking moment scared of sin. It’ll distract you from who you really are. You’ll spend all your time engaging sin, and less and less of your time engaging Jesus.
What now?
Start by letting some of that joy in. Choose your favourite worship song and sing along with it. Dance around your room. Just have fun being in God’s presence.
