Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
Shame
Romans 1:25-27 (New International Version)
"25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion."
Though this verse seems to be talking about homosexuality in specific, I think the same principal can be said about sexual sin in general. Here we see Paul talking about God giving rebellious people "over to shameful lusts". Upon being allowed to follow their lusts to the end, these people ended up deeply entrapped within perversion.
In my experience with my own sexual sin, mainly being pornography, I always knew what I was doing was wrong. As such, I often times asked for forgiveness from God and promised myself and Him that I wouldn't do it anymore. However, of course, I always did it again. Time after time I would go through this cycle. After a while, I think God came to a point where He "gave me over to my shameful lust".
That is not to say he quit forgiving me, because His forgiveness is eternal through Christ's blood. However, I think that when dealing with us on a day to day basis, if I insist on rebelling and am not serious about changing, why would God keep going round and round with us? I think that to a degree, He let me go down that road uninhibited, just like I insisted on. The reason I think He let me go (not from salvation of course), was as a form of discipline, in order to let me learn the hard way, since I had a million chances to learn the easy way, and I refused to.
The reason I think this is because of the condition that my heart became after a while. No longer did I feel remorseful for my lustful sin. As such, I began doing it more and more. Because of that, my taste began to change, always wanting something more graphic, more depraved, more shocking than the last time. My heart became very hard because of my sin. I quit asking God for His forgiveness because I figured there was no point, I was too ashamed to even talk to Him about it. The addiction got worse and worse.
However, that doesn't mean that God didn't want me to change and didn't want me to come back into His graces. He did the entire time along. But because of my persistent disobedience, the way He dealt with me changed. Just as it says in the verse above, I think, for the purpose of discipline, God gave me over to myself. Shame then became the wall I had placed between myself and God.
26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion."
Though this verse seems to be talking about homosexuality in specific, I think the same principal can be said about sexual sin in general. Here we see Paul talking about God giving rebellious people "over to shameful lusts". Upon being allowed to follow their lusts to the end, these people ended up deeply entrapped within perversion.
In my experience with my own sexual sin, mainly being pornography, I always knew what I was doing was wrong. As such, I often times asked for forgiveness from God and promised myself and Him that I wouldn't do it anymore. However, of course, I always did it again. Time after time I would go through this cycle. After a while, I think God came to a point where He "gave me over to my shameful lust".
That is not to say he quit forgiving me, because His forgiveness is eternal through Christ's blood. However, I think that when dealing with us on a day to day basis, if I insist on rebelling and am not serious about changing, why would God keep going round and round with us? I think that to a degree, He let me go down that road uninhibited, just like I insisted on. The reason I think He let me go (not from salvation of course), was as a form of discipline, in order to let me learn the hard way, since I had a million chances to learn the easy way, and I refused to.
The reason I think this is because of the condition that my heart became after a while. No longer did I feel remorseful for my lustful sin. As such, I began doing it more and more. Because of that, my taste began to change, always wanting something more graphic, more depraved, more shocking than the last time. My heart became very hard because of my sin. I quit asking God for His forgiveness because I figured there was no point, I was too ashamed to even talk to Him about it. The addiction got worse and worse.
However, that doesn't mean that God didn't want me to change and didn't want me to come back into His graces. He did the entire time along. But because of my persistent disobedience, the way He dealt with me changed. Just as it says in the verse above, I think, for the purpose of discipline, God gave me over to myself. Shame then became the wall I had placed between myself and God.
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