Are You Waiting for a Sign to Stop?
If you’ve been waiting for a “sign” for God that it’s time to stop a certain sin in your life, this is it. There’s no time like the present to repent—stop and turn in a different direction.
I have an early morning breakfast duty at school each day, and the cafeteria is full of middle and high school students who are eating breakfast and basically just chilling and socializing for a period of time before school is officially in session for the day. The students are pretty relaxed, so my job is fairly easy. The main thing I do is remind them to take off their hoods and put away their headphones and phones (if they have them out). One particular table of sophomore boys is full of frequent offenders. I love each of these boys! And every day, when I make my way over to their table, they uncover their heads and put away their headphones in a respectful manner when I ask.
You’d think they would start just remembering to do this on their own, wouldn’t you? (If you’re making this assumption, that may be a sign that you don’t work in a school full of teenagers. 😉) Nope, they need those frequent reminders. Actually, quite often all they need is to see me starting to walk in their direction. Once they know I’m headed their way, they know the gig is up. It’s time to get into compliance. All they need is the sight of me walking toward them. That’s their sign!
Are you waiting for a sign to get into compliance with God’s law?
Have you been watching something you shouldn’t be watching? Gossiping with your coworkers? Complaining about a certain family member? Allowing a half truth to be believed as the whole truth (knowing that it isn’t)? Sneaking out of work a few minutes early? Submitting data that isn’t 100% accurate? Compromising your integrity in some way? Thinking unkind thoughts? Prioritizing something other than worship each Sabbath?
This is your sign to stop. Enough is enough! Even if it seems like something small and insignificant, sin is sin. You may not think it’s impacting you (or anyone else) negatively, but I promise you it is. A friend of mine always used to say, Sin takes you farther than you want to go and leaves you there longer than you want to stay. It’s a slippery slope that has a ripple effect more powerful than you could imagine.
In Ezra 9, we read a deeply emotional prayer from Ezra on behalf of his fellow Israelites. They had gone against God’s guidelines and intermarried with surrounding nations. Why was this such a big deal? Well, for starters, anything that goes against God’s Word is a big deal—even if it doesn’t feel like it. But in the big picture, consider this: Neighboring nations did not worship the one true God. So when an Israelite married someone of a different religion, then their children would likely grow up with different religious influences, which means the spiritual heritage and monotheism of Israel might shift in future generations.
It’s possible that for many of these marriages, it started with a look, a word spoken or some flirtatious behavior. Sin often starts small. But then, it builds. In Ezra 9, it built into marriages and families that put God’s chosen people at risk.
As you read Ezra 9-10, you discover how the situation played out. Ezra mourned and confessed the sin on behalf of his people, and it was decided that the foreign wives and children had to be permanently removed. (For more details, check out the passage yourself!) So what may have started as flirtatious looks, words and behaviors ended up with families being torn apart. Let’s think about the children for a moment… Their families were broken up. Maybe you can relate.
If not, imagine that you’re a child, growing up with siblings and two parents in the home all together. Then, all of a sudden, you, your siblings and your mother have to leave town—FOREVER. Their new reality was a single-parent household, on the move, headed away from the only home the children had likely known. Such a heartbreaking situation, especially for those innocent children. They were not the guilty ones, but they paid a terrible price for one parent’s sin. Sin’s ripple effect is usually beyond human control, and its pain and destruction is unimaginable. Literally, it might often be unimaginable not only because of the scope, but because you might have absolutely no idea how your sin is impacting others. In Ezra 9, the Israelites knew exactly who suffered because of their disobedience to God. But in other cases, the ripple effect could be beyond your awareness.
So if you’ve been waiting on a sign to stop that sin you’ve been dabbling in, this is it. Let God’s Word and the Holy Spirit convict you, and don’t delay when it comes to repentance. Those boys in my school cafeteria wait each day to see me walking over before they get themselves right. You already have God’s Word to get you right. It promises to convict, rebuke and train you. Let’s pray this prayer together:
Holy Spirit, please convict me of my sin. Open my eyes to see where I am living in disobedience to God’s Word. Please help me to hate my sin as much as You do! Give me what I need to pursue holiness and righteous living. Amen.