A Word of Encouragement
Sometimes I wonder if part of the purpose of family life in God's design is to reveal our sins to us. Time and time again, God has used my family to show me, sometimes painfully, the sinfulness that continues to reside in my heart. I didn't realize just how selfish I was until one night my wife asked to share with her the bowl of soup that I had just prepare for myself. I didn't realize how set I was on establishing my own sovereign kingdom until my children were making noise (heaven forbid) while I was trying to read a book. These moments, and there are many, have often been sharp reminders for me that there is still much work yet to be done in the pursuit of holiness in my home. At times, in sight of what has felt like a mountain of sin, I have been grieved to the point of feeling despair. If you ever find yourself like me, feeling overwhelmed, and perhaps even feeling crushed, by the reality of sin that persists in your family life, I need you to hear two things.
First, you need to find comfort and be lifted up in the hope that exists in the promises of the gospel. God is reconciling the world to Himself and through Christ, God is bringing to newness of life those things which have been so plagued by sin and death. God’s exposing of sin in our lives, is not a judgement, it is an opportunity. Like a doctor who identifies a cancer in you, the exposing of sin in our life is a chance to begun the process of removing that which is spreading death into your life and into your home. The diagnosis we receive is not for despair, it is for hope. What's more, that same doctor who diagnosis our sin will also be the one who brings us to healing because He has abundantly given, and continues to give, the grace necessary for us to be transformed. So like one who has been just shown to have a dangerous cancer in them, we must not ignore, hide, or blame away the sins that God is revealing to us. Instead, we must go to Him, as He is opening a door for the work of healing, repair, and the reconciling work of the gospel to be done in our lives and in our homes.
Second, I need you to remember the God whom we serve. He, who is "gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love", who does not desire that we perish but reach repentance, and who, if we confess our sins, "is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” is our master. We do not serve a merciless tyrant, but one who has loved us deeply even when we had formerly established ourselves as his sworn enemies. We need not approach Him with fear of His wrath, but in the boldness of one who is in Christ, we are to run to His ready and open embrace, expecting Him to respond with a joyful willingness to continue His work of restoration and healing in our lives that He might be further glorified in it.
My prayer for you, and for me, is that God, as painful as it might be, would continue to open our eyes to the sin that exists in our life, and that, in response to that revealing, we would, with great swiftness and eagerness, go in repentance to our merciful God who is ready, willing, and able to forgive and restore us, and that we would commend ourselves to His grace and through it be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, and our Savior.
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