Playing With Fire

"I don't want to LIVE there but I would like to see Hell. It's supposed to have lots of fire and you know how much I like fire..." (Trevor, 9 years old)

 

Do you play with sin this way? I think Trevor’s comment reveals what many of us think about sin. “I don’t want to live there, but there’s a lot of it, you know how much I like it…” Like moths to flame, we are drawn to sin. Playing with sin is a lot like playing with fire.  There is a reason you are not supposed to play with either. Fire, like sin, is enticing. It is sparkly, shiny and bright.  It’s exciting, and at first, it seems to be satisfying and warm your soul.  You think you can control it. But fire, like sin, can easily overtake you. Fire, like sin, consumes. Before you know it, you are engulfed by its flames and your life is in ashes around you. 

We can’t completely avoid sin. As an imperfect (normal) person, my day is filled with small and maybe large inconsistencies between the way I want to live my life and the way I actually get through my day. Anger, unkind words or thoughts, and selfishness are a few of the ways that I can get wrapped up in my own sin. Surely I deserve to be angry. Surely it is my right to feel misunderstood and fantasize about the way I could get even, or about what I should have said in response to unkindness. Don’t I deserve to be first? All of these thoughts, when not given over to God lead to sin.  Soon, if left unchecked, that bright shiny spark of frustration turns to anger, and then to sin.  Like Trevor, I am playing with fire.

1 Peter 3:10-12

For, “The one who desires life, to love and see good days,
Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.
 “He must turn away from evil and do good;
He must seek peace and pursue it.
 “For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous,
And His ears attend to their prayer,
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”