Single & Married Ladies – More Traps!

Hi Ladies,

There are traps that the adversary uses to ensnare Believer when we have strayed into disobedience to Holy Spirit and the Word of God. When we disagree with a restriction or find it inconvenient to obey and would prefer to set Father’s directives aside to formulate our own, we can fall prey to these snares. They’re designed to keep us from sincere repentance for our actions and from seeking true forgiveness from the Lord. Instead we take steps to try to get around the restrictions and to deceive God Himself.

This is not a good place for any woman to be, in relationship to either the Savior, or the man she’s interested in. Trap #1 is “Good Works”, and Trap #2 is “Hardening Our Heart”. Now let’s consider #3 which is designed to entrench us in our stance of resistance and rebellion.

TRAP #3 – THE SECRET SIN

When we begin a process of acceptance of a depraved state of mind, based upon justification of an immoral activity, we remove ourselves from the Source of our strength.   Instead, we reject Him in favor of adopting a pet sin. Rather than discarding it, we rationalize that our actions weren’t really that bad and decide to keep and protect our “weakness”, sheltering it in our closet, a hidden place kept shut away from God and everyone else. It becomes the secret sin that nobody else knows about.   But if we keep quietly feeding, nurturing and protecting it, eventually it will outgrow that closet and will break into the light for all to see.

Shielding a pet sin will alter our relationship with the Lord. Instead of coming to Him in repentance, the increasingly sporadic times when we do pray will be spent skirting around the issue as if God doesn’t know it’s there. Of course, He does, and He awaits our contrition and renunciation of it.

But instead, a woman committed to her secret will decide, consciously or not, to believe a lie, a delusion of her own choosing. The lie is whatever makes her feel better without confronting the real situation. It could be “Everything really is all right”; or “It is well with my soul”. It could be that “God understands, and this is not such a big deal”.

The enemy will whisper that the “problem” will eventually go away, and she’ll automatically be back in right standing with Jesus Christ. But sins do not just disappear of their own volition. Instead they dig deeper and grow bigger. When we opt to keep and protect one, we are presenting the devil with a stronghold, a place of safety in our life, which he can and will use against us.

As Believers, we must realize that we are to forsake sin, not try to reason with, control, or reform it. Nothing that the adversary sends our way, no matter how appealing it appears to be, can be allowed to intervene and subvert our relationship with the Lord. Instead, we must be ready to stop running from, agreeing with, appeasing, or cohabitating with the enemy. An immoral impulse can’t be coddled because its’ ultimate goal is to destroy us. Our only real choice is to combat and eliminate it.

Another problem with rebellious sexual immorality is that performing such a violation is seldom an isolated act. Instead it can become a disposition. We will retain a tendency toward engaging in sinful behaviors if we have not submitted fully to Holy Spirit and turned all our proclivities over to Him.

By keeping a sin close to our heart, clinging to it as a personal favorite, exempt from expulsion and safe from “prying eyes”, it will not stay isolated long. Soon a whole host of other “little” permissible sins will join in, protected and nurtured by our returning old nature. We’ll find ourselves distanced from Christ while pretending that no problem exists. By deliberately committing ourselves to such a willful act, we only separate further from God and His forgiveness, and solidify ourselves into a reprobate state of mind.

There’s more to this sad state of affairs…continuing next week. Joy and Shalom!

Jo Lynne Pool