When Sorry Is Not Enough

If you go to LCC then you will know I'm blatantly stealing this from Pastor Allan. In our walk with the Lord the first step was admitting guilt for our sins and then asking for forgiveness. As our walk progresses we begin to find more and more things in our lives that have become unacceptable behaviors or practices and we mature in our walk by giving these things up as acts of submission and true repentance. The more we grow the more we are able to see what is and is not acceptable in God's sight.
The problem comes in when we continue to do things that we know are wrong in God's sight and assume that just asking forgiveness is enough to get us by. My Pastor says a quote that sums up this way of living, "In life we find that it's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to ask for permission." This is no way for a Christian in a healthy relationship with the Lord to act. I'm not saying it's easy to do, I'm just saying that if we truly rely on God to change our hearts, He can help us bring these things under submission and remove them from our lives. That is true freedom!!!
I will be honest enough to say that I had major issues with cursing like a sailor and drinking alcohol way too much. It was hard for me to curb my language and it was a constant struggle to keep from saying something that I knew I shouldn't. I asked God for help and I asked Him to change my language so that I could be an effective witness for Him. When I truly repented of my filthy mouth and submitted my tongue to Him, He changed my speech.
I also drank like a fish.. It wasn't easy to curb my appetite for alcohol. But, again I gave it to God and He gave me the strength to change my habits. The key point here is that only by true repentance can their be change. Sure we all slip and fall from time to time, but using the excuse that you are trying is not enough. Continuing to commit the same sin over and over again should not be acceptable to us. We have to stand up and submit our flesh to the Father and ask Him to change us a little every day so that we can grow and be effective tools for Him to use. There's nothing worse that feeling the daily guilt of failure over a sin that we continually commit. If we are willing to ask, and to submit our lives to Him, He will help us to change and live in the freedom that only He can give. So today ask Him to change your heart and to help you to be a truly repentant person who walks in obedience to Him. It's not easy, but it's worth it and with His help we can all grow in Spirit and in Truth!!!

Luke 24:47

New Living Translation (NLT)
47 It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations,[a] beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’