October 2, 2024 -- I Corinthians 2:11b-13 -- When it's no one else's fault but your own

So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
I Corinthians 2:11b-13 ESV

Why are there twists and turns in our lives? Why are there so many challenges? The sin-addict faces a myriad of troubles which arise from his own indulgent, wicked behavior, but he refuses to acknowledge the link between his sin and its consequences. There is a mercy which God exercises that is hard for the worldly person to comprehend—God uses our trials and the consequences of our actions so that sinful behavior will be exposed as sinful and the source of troubles which dog our steps.

Hear me. Listen carefully to what I am saying. God uses all the circumstances of our lives in order to bring to light how far, how easily, and how quickly we turn from His ways. Consider these words: “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world” (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain). God does not waste any opportunity in our lives. The things that assault us, sickness, accidents, addictions, debt, persecution by others and so on, are tools used in the hand of God to show how we might have been coping with life and striving to do so without His help.

You sin, which is obvious to everyone around you, might be hidden to the very person being crushed under the weight of it: you. The wicked man declares “I don’t have a problem”; while his nearest and dearest are crying out over the wretchedness of his condition. It is the Spirit of God Who awakens your conscience. It is, as the passage teaches, the Spirit Who lives within the heart of believers Who reveals the full extent of sin’s control so that the mercy of Jesus, the chain-breaker, will be applied and a man (a woman, or a child) once tightly gripped by sin may be set free. It is tempting, when sin is exposed, to blame others, to attribute your bad behavior to your circumstances.

Beloved, it is the Spirit of God Who holds you together through the trials and the pains Who will reveal to you the way sin ravages you. Thus exposed, you can cry to Jesus for His healing. Recognize your sin. Confess it. Hate it. Turn from it. Drop all your excuses. Follow Jesus. The work of the Spirit isn’t to leave you exposed, guilty, shame-filled and wretched! Once the great need to escape the hamster-wheel of sin you have been endlessly running on has been exposed, Jesus’ s healing forgiveness and cleansing work can be applied. Consider the trial you are going through as God’s megaphone, inviting you to call out to Jesus, so that the moment you admit you are powerless over your sin, your addiction, and that it is controlling you, you can find grace and mercy which is all-sufficient. How?

Call a Christian whose walk with God you admire, and ask for help.

Pray to Jesus. Ask that the same Spirit Who has exposed your sin for what it really is, can also lead you to healing.

Read the Bible and ask God to show you the way.

Speak with a Christian minister or chaplain and ask for help.

God, help me to be humble, readied by Your Spirit, so that the exposure of my sin will lead me to repent, turning from it and running to Jesus. Spirit of God, renew in me the confidence that You match my weakness and powerlessness to the mighty, accomplished work of Jesus, in Whom there is new life. Amen.

https://youtu.be/I1GiZL60c80?si=fiOXbZROXDad4nzo “His Mercy Is More”