Safe gaurd your soul

A Christian must always safe gaurd his soul, it is his only possession and most important concern. It is an on going process of self examination, confession and repentance. It is a sad day when someone steeped in the squalor of their own sin looses care for their own soul, and like a boat drawn out to sea by the strength of the ocean current, surrenders to the force and pull of their own sinfulness. Giving up the fight and quitting the race, they have lost sight of their calling in Christ Jesus. Three things we can say about sin therefore...

Firstly, if you think your too sinful for God to do anything with you, realise all people all steeped in sin, and all of fallen short of the glory of God...'we all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way...' (Isaiah 53:6). Some aspects of sin you can be more accutely aware of, and other aspects are more hidden and can easily go unnoticed; it is these latter sins which are often more pervasive and persistent. Don't be downcast if your sin stares you straight back the face, rejoice...it gives you opportunity to rid yourself of it their and then. This is far better than the sin which lurks like monsters in the closet which you throught never existed, and furthermore only come out at night when you sleeping and blind to it.

Secondly, if you feel the weight of sin in your life this is undoubtedly a good thing, it is a matter of how you deal with it. Do not let sin press you down and condemn you...their is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1), instead let it stir you to confession and repentance. Understanding the seriousness of sin is not evidence for the absence of God in your life but actually strong evidence for him working in your life. The non believers eyes are blind to their own sin, but the Christian's eyes are firmly focussed on their own sinfulness and their overwhelming need for the grace, forgiveness and on going santification.

Finally, when you are so preoccupied in the struggle with one particular sin, you can completely lose sight of any other short comings...it is like holding a large picture close up to your face, innevitably you focus in on one small part of the picture and lose sight of the whole thing. Sometimes we need to step back and with eyes wide open and look deeply and objectively into our own lives. What aspects of life is their evidence of the grace of God at work, and what areas does Satan seem to have built strongholds in. Sometimes more obvious surface sin's have a deeper root which stems from a hidden and more pervasive sin which lies unfound and out of focus. Like the leaves on the trees which wither and turn brown, the problem is not with the leaves but with the root. We must learn to search out sin in our lives often, and invite the light of Jesus Christ to shine in the deepest corners of our being.