Proverbs 5:21-23 (NKJV) 21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord,
And He ponders all his paths.
22 His own iniquities entrap the wicked man,
And he is caught in the cords of his sin.
23 He shall die for lack of instruction,
And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
Proverbs 5:21-23 (NIV) 21 For the LORD sees clearly what a man does,
examining every path he takes.
22 An evil man is held captive by his own sins;
they are ropes that catch and hold him.
23 He will die for lack of self-control;
he will be lost because of his great foolishness.
Proverbs 5:21-23 (NLT) 21 For the LORD sees clearly what a man does,
examining every path he takes.
22 An evil man is held captive by his own sins;
they are ropes that catch and hold him.
23 He will die for lack of self-control;
he will be lost because of his great foolishness.
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Hebrews 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Jeremiah 29:23 For they have committed an outrage in Israel by committing adultery with the wives of their neighbors and speaking lies in My name, which I did not command them to do. I am He who knows, and I am a witness, declares the LORD.
Do we really think that the one who created us does not see what we do and does not know what we think or say?
Psalm 139:13-16 (BSB) 13 For You formed my inmost being;
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise You,
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Marvelous are Your works,
and I know this very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You
when I was made in secret,
when I was woven together
in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all my days were written in Your book
and ordained for me
before one of them came to be.
Luke 12:6-7 (BSB) 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
The one who knows every hair on your head, knows all.
Psalm 139:1-4 (BSB) 1 O LORD, You have searched me
and known me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
You understand my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down;
You are aware of all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
You know all about it, O LORD.
When WE make wrong choices and WE make wrong decisions and WE choose to sin and disobey God, then WE pay the consequences. When we sin, there are consequences. The worst consequence is being separated from God and eternal damnation!
Romans 6:12-14, 19-23 (NLT) 12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. 14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace... 19 Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. 21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. 22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
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The wages (or consequences) of sin is death, eternal death, separation from God. Praise God, we can repent and ask for forgiveness and God is ready to forgive! We can be saved by accepting Jesus as our Savior and accepting His forgiveness! But there are other consequences that may not disappear. We have to deal with what we've done and it won't be a piece of cake. Once we are saved, God gives us the Holy Spirit to enable us and empower us to live in this world. So we have a builtin power to help us. And, God redeems all situations for His children. They can be used to our good.
Let's say that we've committed the sin of alcoholism. Drinking an alcoholic drink is not a sin. It's the lack of self control that lets us drink to drunkenness that is sinful. Drunkenness is a sin, addiction to alcohol is a sin (because alcohol becomes god in an alcoholic's life). Drunkenness can also lead to other sins. It removes inhibitions and you are doing other sins without thought such as drugs, sex, cursing, fighting, etc. You are hurting others around you. So lack of self control, idolatry and the sins that follow inebriation are the sins that cause consequences in your life. You may lose your job, lose your family, lose self respect, lose dignity, lose money, lose opportunities, lose your license, lose a fight, land in jail, cause an accident, etc. These are all real consequences that follow a drunk. Now, let's say that drunk hits rock bottom and realizes that he has no control over alcohol or over his life with alcohol. So he turns to God and he sincerely repents. He realizes he's wrong and he is causing untold damage to himself and others. He needs help so he reaches out to God. He prays and asks for forgiveness and accepts Jesus Christ as his Savior. His sins are forgiven and he is going to heaven. But he is still haunted by the consequences of his bad choices. His wife may never come back, his children may never forgive him, he may still have to pay that DUI, he may still have to face jail time, etc. But he now has the Holy Spirit to help him and He has God on his side to help redeem his situation. It could be that God speaks to his wife and she goes back to him in time and their marriage is better than ever! It could be that God speaks to his children and his children forgive him! It could be that he meets a friend in jail that will help him in his new walk with Christ. It could be that he will find an even better job. And usually, an alcoholic is always tempted by alcohol, even if he/she is saved. They have that weakness and they really struggle with it. God can use that struggle to make them compassionate towards others. He may use it to keep someone humble. He may use it to keep someone dependent on Him (which is a great blessing!). As long as the alcoholic keeps coming back to God, God will forgive and will use all things to make them a better child of God. They may still be a drunk, but they are a drunk who realizes their spiritual poverty without God and realizes their total dependence on God. They realize they are a sinner and it's only through Jesus that they are saved. Let's face it, there are many people out there that think they are so superior and such a good person that, of course, they are saved. That kind of pride will be what excludes them and all along they thought they were saved! Those who are saved are those who realize they are sinners deserving of hell but Jesus Christ has forgiven them and He paid the price so they wouldn't go to hell!
Matthew 5:33 (Jesus speaking) “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
We must realize that all our good deeds are nothing but so many filthy rags and we must be desperate for a Savior and reach out to Jesus. He loves us and is calling us. We must respond. We must believe He died for us and saved us. It is His work only that gives us salvation and forgiveness. It is only God's mercy and grace that saves us. Someone who struggles with their sin, and feels helpless, will realize they are "poor in spirit" and they will reach out to God. It is to those who are promised the kingdom of heaven!
So, our choices to sin can entangle us and cause us to be in bondage to that sin whatever it is. I've mentioned alcoholism but it can be any sin that we have a weakness for: gossip/slander, drug addiction, sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, pride, maliciousness, etc. These verses say that no only does God already know all about it, but we've allowed ourselves to become enslaved to it. All day long we think of who we can tell the latest gossip to. All day long we think about how to get drugs. All day long we think about having sex. All day long we think about how wonderful we are and how superior we are to others. Self righteous, better-than-thou, stuck up people who judge others. All day long we plan on how to hurt someone with malicious words and deeds. Maybe it's on the internet and we are mean on facebook. Maybe we are one of those who maliciously likes to spread stories, pictures, cruel words about others. Maybe we like hacking into other's finances and destroying and stealing. Maybe we like to go through neighborhoods and steal mail and try to use it to steal their identity. Maybe we like conning people in order to steal from them. We spend all our time coming up with new cons, new schemes, new ways to steal and hurt and destroy someone's life because we like playing god. We are either planning it, preparing it, doing it or bragging about it. We've become enslaved to our sins and our sins rule us. Our whole life revolves around that sin.
If you don't turn to God, you will die in your sin and face the eternal consequence of judgment. God says that letting ourselves get enslaved with sin is foolishness and only has one end, you will die in it.
There is only one person who can save you and that is Jesus Christ. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glorious plan. I'm no better than you and vice versa. We are born with a sinful nature and we indulge it and sin from beginning to end. But, Jesus Christ paid the price for our sin and He alone saves. You can turn to Him and ask Him to be your Savior and to forgive you of your sins. Otherwise, you will die for lack of self-control; you will be lost because of your great foolishness.
This is the end of Proverbs 5 so let me say a few last words before moving on. This chapter was a father giving advice to his son (and could be the same if it was a mother giving advice to her daughter) about not following after a seducing woman/man. The advice is to avoid such immoral people because the end result are consequences you don't want to have.
But this can also be seen as God telling His people not to follow after the seductions of satan. Satan loves to tempt us to sin. He advertises and labels sin as anything but bad. He wants you to believe you can have fun, be the life of the party, be everyone's buddy, have the best girls, live in luxury if you will just sin. He never shows you the aftermath of destruction that sin does. He carefully hides that from you because if you saw the full horror of where you were headed, you would run! But God warns us! God tells us the truth. God lets us know, bluntly, that the end result is death, judgment, and the Lake of Fire for eternity. God reveals the truth.
So God is revealing truth to His people in these verses. He is saying that satan is like the prostitute, the whore, the harlot, the immoral woman. Satan is the stranger from outside the household of God who is tempting God's people into sin which leads to bondage, death, judgment and eternal fire. Satan puts on fake makeup, a wig and dresses up sin to look like something it isn't. Satan entices and cajoles and persuades. You must roll out your life, examine the paths you are walking and see where they lead.
Psalm 139:1-6 1 O LORD, You have searched me
and known me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
You understand my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down;
You are aware of all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
You know all about it, O LORD.
5 You hem me in behind and before;
You have laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain...
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my concerns.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me;
lead me in the way everlasting.
That last verse asks God to see if there is any way in us that is offensive to God, hurtful, evil, wicked or destructive and lead me down a road, a path, a course to eternal life. God knows every intent of the heart.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure—who can understand it? 10 I, the LORD, search the heart; I test the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve.
Hebrews 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Jeremiah 16:17 For My eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from My face, and their guilt is not concealed from My eyes.
Hosea 7:2 It never enters their heads that I will remember all this evil; but their sins surround them, and I cannot avoid seeing them.
Romans 2:5-12 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek
One sin is enough to send us to hell and we sin many times. We are not righteous enough to be acceptable to God and He knows it. We can't hide it behind fig leaves of deception and justifications. But we have a Savior who was perfect and sinless and He died for us to pay for our sins. If we accept Him and allow Him to cleanse us, we don't have to worry about God's judgment for there are no longer any sins for Him to see. It is good to keep a spiritual inventory and regularly check ourselves and let the Holy Spirit search us. If He brings to mind any sins, we can ask forgiveness and He always forgives.
Don't let your guard down because satan loves to exploit our weaknesses and tempt us in those areas. He can persuade and con you into believing it isn't really sin and there isn't any consequences. But we all have sin and there are always consequences so don't believe his lies and deceptions. Ask the Holy Spirit within you to remove and of satan's deceptions so that you can see the matter clearly and see how it ends and then to give you the strength to turn away from the path of wickedness and destruction and take the path of righteousness.
For all my studies on Proverbs click HERE.
And He ponders all his paths.
22 His own iniquities entrap the wicked man,
And he is caught in the cords of his sin.
23 He shall die for lack of instruction,
And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
Proverbs 5:21-23 (NIV) 21 For the LORD sees clearly what a man does,
examining every path he takes.
22 An evil man is held captive by his own sins;
they are ropes that catch and hold him.
23 He will die for lack of self-control;
he will be lost because of his great foolishness.
Proverbs 5:21-23 (NLT) 21 For the LORD sees clearly what a man does,
examining every path he takes.
22 An evil man is held captive by his own sins;
they are ropes that catch and hold him.
23 He will die for lack of self-control;
he will be lost because of his great foolishness.
Hebrews 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Jeremiah 29:23 For they have committed an outrage in Israel by committing adultery with the wives of their neighbors and speaking lies in My name, which I did not command them to do. I am He who knows, and I am a witness, declares the LORD.
Do we really think that the one who created us does not see what we do and does not know what we think or say?
Psalm 139:13-16 (BSB) 13 For You formed my inmost being;
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise You,
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Marvelous are Your works,
and I know this very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You
when I was made in secret,
when I was woven together
in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all my days were written in Your book
and ordained for me
before one of them came to be.
Luke 12:6-7 (BSB) 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
The one who knows every hair on your head, knows all.
Psalm 139:1-4 (BSB) 1 O LORD, You have searched me
and known me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
You understand my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down;
You are aware of all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
You know all about it, O LORD.
When WE make wrong choices and WE make wrong decisions and WE choose to sin and disobey God, then WE pay the consequences. When we sin, there are consequences. The worst consequence is being separated from God and eternal damnation!
Romans 6:12-14, 19-23 (NLT) 12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. 14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace... 19 Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. 21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. 22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
The wages (or consequences) of sin is death, eternal death, separation from God. Praise God, we can repent and ask for forgiveness and God is ready to forgive! We can be saved by accepting Jesus as our Savior and accepting His forgiveness! But there are other consequences that may not disappear. We have to deal with what we've done and it won't be a piece of cake. Once we are saved, God gives us the Holy Spirit to enable us and empower us to live in this world. So we have a builtin power to help us. And, God redeems all situations for His children. They can be used to our good.
Let's say that we've committed the sin of alcoholism. Drinking an alcoholic drink is not a sin. It's the lack of self control that lets us drink to drunkenness that is sinful. Drunkenness is a sin, addiction to alcohol is a sin (because alcohol becomes god in an alcoholic's life). Drunkenness can also lead to other sins. It removes inhibitions and you are doing other sins without thought such as drugs, sex, cursing, fighting, etc. You are hurting others around you. So lack of self control, idolatry and the sins that follow inebriation are the sins that cause consequences in your life. You may lose your job, lose your family, lose self respect, lose dignity, lose money, lose opportunities, lose your license, lose a fight, land in jail, cause an accident, etc. These are all real consequences that follow a drunk. Now, let's say that drunk hits rock bottom and realizes that he has no control over alcohol or over his life with alcohol. So he turns to God and he sincerely repents. He realizes he's wrong and he is causing untold damage to himself and others. He needs help so he reaches out to God. He prays and asks for forgiveness and accepts Jesus Christ as his Savior. His sins are forgiven and he is going to heaven. But he is still haunted by the consequences of his bad choices. His wife may never come back, his children may never forgive him, he may still have to pay that DUI, he may still have to face jail time, etc. But he now has the Holy Spirit to help him and He has God on his side to help redeem his situation. It could be that God speaks to his wife and she goes back to him in time and their marriage is better than ever! It could be that God speaks to his children and his children forgive him! It could be that he meets a friend in jail that will help him in his new walk with Christ. It could be that he will find an even better job. And usually, an alcoholic is always tempted by alcohol, even if he/she is saved. They have that weakness and they really struggle with it. God can use that struggle to make them compassionate towards others. He may use it to keep someone humble. He may use it to keep someone dependent on Him (which is a great blessing!). As long as the alcoholic keeps coming back to God, God will forgive and will use all things to make them a better child of God. They may still be a drunk, but they are a drunk who realizes their spiritual poverty without God and realizes their total dependence on God. They realize they are a sinner and it's only through Jesus that they are saved. Let's face it, there are many people out there that think they are so superior and such a good person that, of course, they are saved. That kind of pride will be what excludes them and all along they thought they were saved! Those who are saved are those who realize they are sinners deserving of hell but Jesus Christ has forgiven them and He paid the price so they wouldn't go to hell!
Matthew 5:33 (Jesus speaking) “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
We must realize that all our good deeds are nothing but so many filthy rags and we must be desperate for a Savior and reach out to Jesus. He loves us and is calling us. We must respond. We must believe He died for us and saved us. It is His work only that gives us salvation and forgiveness. It is only God's mercy and grace that saves us. Someone who struggles with their sin, and feels helpless, will realize they are "poor in spirit" and they will reach out to God. It is to those who are promised the kingdom of heaven!
So, our choices to sin can entangle us and cause us to be in bondage to that sin whatever it is. I've mentioned alcoholism but it can be any sin that we have a weakness for: gossip/slander, drug addiction, sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, pride, maliciousness, etc. These verses say that no only does God already know all about it, but we've allowed ourselves to become enslaved to it. All day long we think of who we can tell the latest gossip to. All day long we think about how to get drugs. All day long we think about having sex. All day long we think about how wonderful we are and how superior we are to others. Self righteous, better-than-thou, stuck up people who judge others. All day long we plan on how to hurt someone with malicious words and deeds. Maybe it's on the internet and we are mean on facebook. Maybe we are one of those who maliciously likes to spread stories, pictures, cruel words about others. Maybe we like hacking into other's finances and destroying and stealing. Maybe we like to go through neighborhoods and steal mail and try to use it to steal their identity. Maybe we like conning people in order to steal from them. We spend all our time coming up with new cons, new schemes, new ways to steal and hurt and destroy someone's life because we like playing god. We are either planning it, preparing it, doing it or bragging about it. We've become enslaved to our sins and our sins rule us. Our whole life revolves around that sin.
If you don't turn to God, you will die in your sin and face the eternal consequence of judgment. God says that letting ourselves get enslaved with sin is foolishness and only has one end, you will die in it.
There is only one person who can save you and that is Jesus Christ. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glorious plan. I'm no better than you and vice versa. We are born with a sinful nature and we indulge it and sin from beginning to end. But, Jesus Christ paid the price for our sin and He alone saves. You can turn to Him and ask Him to be your Savior and to forgive you of your sins. Otherwise, you will die for lack of self-control; you will be lost because of your great foolishness.
This is the end of Proverbs 5 so let me say a few last words before moving on. This chapter was a father giving advice to his son (and could be the same if it was a mother giving advice to her daughter) about not following after a seducing woman/man. The advice is to avoid such immoral people because the end result are consequences you don't want to have.
But this can also be seen as God telling His people not to follow after the seductions of satan. Satan loves to tempt us to sin. He advertises and labels sin as anything but bad. He wants you to believe you can have fun, be the life of the party, be everyone's buddy, have the best girls, live in luxury if you will just sin. He never shows you the aftermath of destruction that sin does. He carefully hides that from you because if you saw the full horror of where you were headed, you would run! But God warns us! God tells us the truth. God lets us know, bluntly, that the end result is death, judgment, and the Lake of Fire for eternity. God reveals the truth.
So God is revealing truth to His people in these verses. He is saying that satan is like the prostitute, the whore, the harlot, the immoral woman. Satan is the stranger from outside the household of God who is tempting God's people into sin which leads to bondage, death, judgment and eternal fire. Satan puts on fake makeup, a wig and dresses up sin to look like something it isn't. Satan entices and cajoles and persuades. You must roll out your life, examine the paths you are walking and see where they lead.
Psalm 139:1-6 1 O LORD, You have searched me
and known me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
You understand my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down;
You are aware of all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
You know all about it, O LORD.
5 You hem me in behind and before;
You have laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain...
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my concerns.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me;
lead me in the way everlasting.
That last verse asks God to see if there is any way in us that is offensive to God, hurtful, evil, wicked or destructive and lead me down a road, a path, a course to eternal life. God knows every intent of the heart.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure—who can understand it? 10 I, the LORD, search the heart; I test the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve.
Hebrews 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Jeremiah 16:17 For My eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from My face, and their guilt is not concealed from My eyes.
Hosea 7:2 It never enters their heads that I will remember all this evil; but their sins surround them, and I cannot avoid seeing them.
Romans 2:5-12 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek
One sin is enough to send us to hell and we sin many times. We are not righteous enough to be acceptable to God and He knows it. We can't hide it behind fig leaves of deception and justifications. But we have a Savior who was perfect and sinless and He died for us to pay for our sins. If we accept Him and allow Him to cleanse us, we don't have to worry about God's judgment for there are no longer any sins for Him to see. It is good to keep a spiritual inventory and regularly check ourselves and let the Holy Spirit search us. If He brings to mind any sins, we can ask forgiveness and He always forgives.
Don't let your guard down because satan loves to exploit our weaknesses and tempt us in those areas. He can persuade and con you into believing it isn't really sin and there isn't any consequences. But we all have sin and there are always consequences so don't believe his lies and deceptions. Ask the Holy Spirit within you to remove and of satan's deceptions so that you can see the matter clearly and see how it ends and then to give you the strength to turn away from the path of wickedness and destruction and take the path of righteousness.
- Have you ever relied on a fig leaf to cover your sin? Deception, hiding and trying to cover it up, justifying, excusing? Do you understand now that God knows all? There is nothing you can hide from Him? Does that scare you?
- Have you asked Jesus to be your forgiver, you Savior and Lord of your life? If you have then you are saved and will not go to Hell and the Lake of Fire. If you haven't then your sins will send you to Hell and the Lake of Fire for eternity. It's that simple. You can pray now to be saved and forgiven!
- When we are saved God gives His Holy Spirit to live within us to help us when satan tries to tempt us to sin. God has given us free will and He will not force you to do anything. He will lead and guide, but you have to choose whether or not to obey Him. When we choose to obey, the Holy Spirit empowers us to obey. When we choose to disobey and sin, we have consequences. We always have the option to change our mind and repent and God forgives. Thanks be to the God of mercy! Are you saved? If you are saved did you know God gave you His Word and His Spirit in order to help you? You don't have to be a slave to sin unless you choose to be. God has given us the wisdom (His Word) and the power (His Holy Spirit) to enable us when we choose to obey God (see 2 Peter 1:3).
- Even Christians will face a judgment. We will have to account for our lives. We do NOT face Hell and the Lake of Fire because we are saved through Jesus Christ. But we will receive rewards. Jesus paid for our sins so that we have eternal life in Heaven. But all our works, words and thoughts will go through a fire of judgment and what comes out is silver and gold, heavenly rewards and treasure. 2 Corinthians 5:10 "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad". Matthew 12:36 "I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak." 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 "Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire". What makes it through the fire (the pure silver, gold and precious stones) are our rewards. Did you realize there are two different judgments? The one where the unsaved are revealed and sent to Hell and the Lake of Fire and the one for Christians that judges our works, words and deeds and reveals our heavenly treasure.
- Choosing sin leads to consequences and can end up in bondage to a sin. I gave you one example. Can you think of another example where sin leads to bondage and takes over the life of a person who continues to practise it?
- Do you have a particular weakness towards a certain sin or sins? Journal about it. Why is it hard for you to disobey God in this area? Do you feel helpless when satan tempts you? Do you find yourself falling to it again and again?
- Had you realized that God gave you two tools to help you be victorious over this sin? What are they?
- If you make the choice to obey, God gives you the strength to obey. Have you experienced that help?
- Had you ever thought about how our relationship with God is like a marriage? When we are saved, we become a child of God and we become one with Him. His Holy Spirit lives within us so we are identified with God. Satan is not a part of the family of God. He is a stranger to the household of God and he tries to seduce us away from God. He loves nothing better than to drive a wedge between God and His child. Satan is the harlot who tempts us to sin which hurts our relationship with God.
- Take a spiritual inventory and ask God to search your heart and reveal anything in you that is offensive to Him. Then ask Jesus to forgive you and ask the Holy Spirit to help lead you in the right path.
For all my studies on Proverbs click HERE.