Romans 6:20 – 23 (MSG) “As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn’t have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you’re proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end. But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.”

Did you know that the sin in our life holds us hostage in a guilt and shame-filled prison cell. It might not seem like you’re in a jail cell at the time…but this is how Satan plays his games. Sin is fun isn’t it? If it wasn’t, no one would do it…right??? Without even knowing it, sin binds us to the wall of desolation where there is no hope and we are destined to die. This is a tough pill to swallow for me because a “little” sin (over indulging in food or alcohol, gossip, looking at a hot guy for far too long, etc.)  is so much fun! Isn’t it? But the “little” sin brings just as much death at the sin we like to define as “big” sin – murder, rape, stealing, etc.

Praise God there is hope outside of those sin induced prison walls. His name is Jesus Christ. When we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, our old way of life is gone (2 Corinthians 5:17)… nailed to the very cross where Jesus paid our bail. Jesus, the only sinless Son of God, served the time for our “crime.” No matter what we’ve done, we can be assured that our old life is gone and we’re set free from the bondage of sin’s grip (John 8:36). We are free to live an eternal life. It’s God’s gift to us.

With this gift of eternal life, we can now begin to leave our old life behind and walk in the freedom of God’s grace. Jesus begins a new work in us. Does this mean we will never sin again? Don’t I wish! We were all born with a sin nature so it’s only natural to sin. As a Christian it is important to remember that when (yep, I said when not if) we fall into sin we don’t have to go back to the guilt-filled prison cell because we have already been set free in Christ. We can pick ourselves up and continue to move forward being transformed by God’s grace. It is so important to stay in the Word and learn everything we can…this will bring us into a closer relationship with Christ everyday. With the Holy Spirit as our guide to help us through our daily experiences, we can live the way Christ intend us to life…fully alive without guilt or shame.

I like to keep the picture of Peter walking on water in my mind. When Peter fixed his eyes on Jesus he could walk on water. It was only when he looked at the circumstances surrounding him that he was overcome and fell (Matthew 14:28 – 30). I encourage you today to keep your eyes on Jesus; don’t let the distractions of this world take your focus away from Him.