Expecting to sin

The following is a response from a good friend to a question I posed to him.  The question was:  “What have you been told about your heart–even after becoming a Christian?”  Here's my friend's response:

“As I look back at my years as a Christian, I am sorry to say that now I see clearly that I have been actually held back in my Christian walk, because I have been receiving the message that my heart is still bad, still wicked.  As a result, my expectations for the “abundant life” of which Jesus spoke, have been nil! Because of what was said on Sunday mornings, I expected to sin regularly!"

There are many Christians who would agree with you if you told them Jesus has made their hearts new, that they are “new creations.”  Yet, their expectation is that they’ll continue to sin regularly and there’s not much they can do about it, except to rehearse the cycle of failure and shame.  They still believe they are predisposed towards wandering and disobedience, and not towards goodness.  –Inclined towards rebellion and self-will, and not towards the new implanted and surprising Spirit-wrought vitality and holiness that is now within them.  Why?
Because they have been given a distortion of the Gospel for so long that anything that challenges that entrenched distortion is seen as suspect.  Familiarity breeds contempt for fresh insight, even the kind that could lead to the very life they long for in Jesus.
We need to start having expectations that are aligned with our new heart, indulging our new appetites and desires for goodness that we now possess..

Comments

[Darrin Cantrell]

So true.

Isn't it amazing what religion teaches us about "getting saved"? I remember being told to write down my conversion date so that I could remember it forever as my "real" birthday. Then, like an alcoholic who relapses, I felt the need to keep changing my birthday over and over again. What a cycle of guilt and shame.

His love can really change things including our warped perspective of who we thought He was.