Loving God at first doesn’t seem so hard but we don’t, something hinders us so what is the problem. We all intuitively know what the problem is, its sin, it separates us from God. Now you might say that Jesus has paid the price for our sins and has forgiven all our sins past present and future and has bridged the gap that formally separated us from having fellowship with Jesus and with our heavenly Father, and you would be right, at least mostly right.  All that is true but as we continue to sin in everyday life, that separation  comes back to haunt us and soon enough we just feel, well… separated. The truth of the matter is we just can’t walk in sin, live in sin, or be addicted to sin and have a real dynamic, loving relationship with Jesus and with our Father in heaven. So first and foremost we must get rid of the sin problem which means ,according to the Bible, we must repent.  

Now you say you already repented when you received Christ as your savior. So let us go back and review your Christian beginnings.  You were told to become a Christian you must first believe that Jesus is the Son of God that He was born of the virgin Mary that He suffered and died on a cross and that He rose again from the dead and secondly to repent of your sins, that is to be sorry for all the wrongs that you have done, thirdly to give your whole life over to Jesus, fourthly to ask Him into your life to become your Lord and Savior.  Basically the sinners prayer.  So here you are a born again Christian your sins forgiven and you have throttled down your sinning somewhat.  Would you say that you sin about 22.5% less than your unsaved friends? Good! You qualify as an average luke warm christian.  And hey you can go to church and get all ginned up singing he latest Michael W. Smith songs

But be honest with me, are you still living in sin, walking in sin, addicted to your sin habits? If the answer is yes then I’m going to be honest with you… you repented of your sins at the time   you accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior but then when times of temptations and testing came you failed and went back to your old ways, your old self. Instead of ridding yourself of these nasty sins you decided to just throttle it down somewhat and call it good enough. So now we are back to talking about the problem, the problem is you didn’t repent successfully, you said you would and Jesus in His mercy took you at your word and He did His part by forgiving you your past sins and He entered your heart so that now the door is opened for you to have fellowship with Him, and instead of taking advantage of His presence in your life you have decided to settled into a modified old self lifestyle, you have decided to be just another luke warm Christian, but guess what? You are never going to learn to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, if that’s how you are going to live. You just aren’t.  You must repent… successfully. 

I told you this was not going to be easy.  But the good news is that God has given us all the tools we need to live a godly life.  1Tim.6:16 says Christ has everlasting power and this same Jesus (who has the everlasting power),dwells in you.  So do you know what that means for you?  It means that you have access to everlasting power because you have access to Christ. Also in 2Peter1:3 it says, “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life…” 

So step one is to acknowledge the fact that there is sin in your life  and that sin is separating you from having a loving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Throttling down your sinning somewhat is just not going to cut it.  

You are going to have to stop sinning, especially that sin that so easily gets to you. That one sin, the one you struggle with the most, it must be dealt with, it must be dealt a deadly blow, you must get complete victory over that one. You think Jesus is pleased with us when we clean up the little sins in our lives while all along we are ignoring the gorilla in the room? Please don’t forget this one thing about Jesus, he is a man’s man. He wants to take on the gorilla in the room first and foremost, He will deal with the little stuff later on but let’s get first things done first. It is time to fight. It is time to take on that great big gorilla in your life.

Are you ready and willing for this? This is the great adventure that your heart is longing for. There is nothing else in all the world to compare. This is epic, you are going to wrestle with all of the spiritual forces of darkness in the heavenly places and you are going to come out on top. Meanwhile…

May the Lord bless you and keep you, may he lift up his face upon you and be gracious to you, may he lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.