Are you stocked up on mosquito repellent?
I saw in the news recently that, because my region did not have a harsh winter, the bugs are going to be out in force soon. The headline was "Stock up on Mosquito Repellent." I bring this up not just because it reminds me to head to Walmart to buy bug spray (!) but because there's another thing I need repellent for…sin.
In Psalm 38 King David wrote I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin (verse 18). Key in this verse is not just the word confess but the word troubled. Dr. Tim Keller explains it this way:
"David does not merely admit his sin but is troubled by it. [Like David,] if we only confess but do not also find the sin repellent - for how it grieves and dishonors God and destroys others - the sin will retain its power over us. We will find ourselves doing it again" (The Songs of Jesus, page 80).
So, the sin repellent - the thing that will keep the sin away - is our continued remembrance of how that sin...
- grieves the Holy Spirit (and quenches HIS supernatural power in our lives)
- dishonors God (and drags HIS holy name through the mud)
- destroys others (and creates often permanent wedges in our relationships).
Like me, do you have some sin that keeps comin' back...like mosquitos in the summer? Let's proactively spay ourselves from head to toe with sin repellent (and I'll probably write about what this looks like next). With consistent use, the bugs will quit biting and rest will come.