As a newly saved Christian, I often wonder how I made it out alive. I often wonder why I was doing the things I know are against God. How could a God forgive me for being so ungrateful to Him? What a God we serve that He can forgive a sinner like me. But with that said I have to be careful and not let my guard down.
I must keep my eyes on God at all times. I must keep my attention on Him as much as I can. I must continue to pray constantly. Why? Because Satan is angry with me for jumping the fence. He’s angry with me for deciding to give up sin. In fact, he is so angry that he is pulling-out all the stops to get me back.
He’s using all of his bags of tricks. What do I mean by pulling-out all the stops? As unsaved sinners we had our favorite sins which we enjoyed; you know with me, it was drugs and porn. What most folks don’t realize is that the favorite sins that we commit are supporting sins to keep our other sins going like lying, cheating, stealing and deceiving others.
With me, I had to keep my habit going. I had to lie to my wife about where money was going. I had to rob Peter to pay Paul (the drug man ). I had to short the grocery money to get my drug. I did whatever it took to keep my favorite sin going. Satan was good with that as long as I kept up my favorite sin. He had no worries about me because I was committing so many sins. He knew that, and did not have to pull out his back-up sins to get me back in-line.
Now that God has truly saved me, Satan is at it with full-force to get me back. He now is trying at every turn to lure me back to the other side of the fence. How is he doing that? By having me commit little sins that we don’t think are that bad. Let me give you an example: About a month ago I was bored and decided I wanted to watch a movie that I could not find on a paid site, so I decided to see if it was online.
I found it. There and it was my first try out—my favorite all time movie. In fact it showed even more of the movie than I ever seen before when I watched it several years back. It was fantastic, it was streamed and without any blips or cut offs. It was great. It was from one of those weird sites that you can watch if you sign up and register and give up all your personal info, etc.
I did not have to do anything, just select and play. It was actually too good to be true. After watching the movie I decided to watch another, and then another. After the third one I decided to check out the site to see if it was legit. I never got a for sure answer to see if in fact I was watching movies legally. I got answers like its legal over in this country but pirating over here, I never got a real solid answer until one answered that if it’s too good to be true then it not legal.
I immediately new without any hesitation that it was wrong. I was committing one of those little sins that you think are really not that bad. What I was doing was stealing. I was taking money out of legit peoples’ pockets that owned the movie or the rights to them. I mentioned this to my wife and she said , “We’ll honey you’ve owned that movie before, it’s not like you really stealing it.” And she was correct, but did I own the rest of the ones I viewed ?
Was it all right to watch movies that I did not pay for just because it was seemingly free online? That is what I call a little sin, because we think it does no harm, we think that is so common and small that it is okay. But to God it’s just as huge as stealing millions of dollars from a bank. You’re still a thief . Your are still lying to yourself. Let me tell you about those sites that think it’s just file sharing.
Imagine you just went out and bought your favorite up-to-date movie, and after viewing it several times your friend next door asks to borrow it and watch it. No problem. You loan it to him and he watches it, and then you go and try to get it back and he says that he loaned it to his friend across town, and his friend loans it to his friend. By the time you get it back several people have watched it. In a nutshell you have taken money out of people’s pockets that created the movie or the store that is selling the item. You’re taking money out of people’s pockets that are trying to make a honest living just like you are. They should have gone out and bought the movie just as I had done. I felt bad and got on my knees and asked God for forgiveness. I told Him I did not realize that the little sin is just as bad as the big sin. Do you think taking a box of paper clips or a ream of paper from your job without permission is not stealing (just because they can afford it)? Don’t fool yourself. It’s the same in God’s eyes.
Sin is sin, no matter big or small. When I hear folks say that they have just that one sin, they are fooling themselves. That is why God will not rescue you because you’re not honest with Him and giving-up everything. That is why I asked God to remove all sin in my life, even the ones I forgot about, even the ones that seem too small to worry about. Satan will pull out all the stops to get you back. I see now that Satan is not going to give me up easily. He will pull out all his
tricks to get me back; thru anger and the past. He’ll make you think that you are worthless and pull out all your weaknesses to ensnare you.
He will pound you day after day with his evil ways. Your own family will grow weary of you because of your new commitment to God. Satan will continue to use all his tricks to get you to return to him. But he knows the truth. He knows now that I finally got it, that I really this time gave myself to the Lord. He knows now that if I keep my eyes on God I’m not coming back. He sees now that I have left the sea of sin for the sea of life. He is angry with me and I’m glad to be on the right side of the fence. I’m glad that God’s return will even take me away from ever seeing sin.
I now understanding how sin works; it’s alluring, it traps you. Satan sneaks it in to get you back. There is no such thing as the little sin— it’s all sin. God wants all of you, not part of you. God will direct you if you let Him. If not, Satan will.
Robert Campbell