Have you ever, as a child of God, sat back and wondered "Why am I here again?!" or "Why am I going through this again?!" Have you ever had something that kept reoccurring in your life and not know why? You love God, you want and have a desire to do His Word and Will, and you know His Word — and yet you find yourself at the same crossroads (or similar) over and over again.
We pray, we repent, we seek God's face, we stay in His Word, and yet the same thing — or something similar — keeps popping its head up; it keeps coming back again. The problem is we often repent and truly mean it in our hearts, but we only address the symptom. We deal with the outward sins committed through the members of our bodies — our words, actions, or thoughts — without addressing the root cause that produced them.
Where is our faith placed?
The real problem is that we have our faith, our hope, and our trust in the wrong thing. We look to something other than where our faith should be — and that is the Cross of Christ.
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death." — Romans 8:2
What this means (briefly)
- For the law of the Spirit of life: A law is a system of rules that govern behavior and are enforced by a controlling authority. This is the law that governs how the Holy Spirit operates.
- In Christ Jesus has set you free: Found in Christ Jesus — not only the person of Jesus but what He accomplished. His sacrificial life and death on the Cross set us free.
- From the law of sin and death: The wages of sin is death. Our sin debt was paid in full on the Cross of Calvary.
"We know that our old self (our human nature without the Holy Spirit) was nailed to the cross with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin." — Romans 6:6 (AMP)
Sin ruins everything it touches. It was so severe that God Himself had to come down and deal with it. We cannot do it in ourselves — but God can! Sin is a rejection of God’s way, and His way is Jesus and the Cross of Calvary. Paul said, "We preach Christ crucified!" — the Cross.
Why recurring sin persists
When we have our faith in anything other than Jesus and the Cross, the Holy Spirit cannot fully operate in our lives. It doesn't matter how good the thing or person is that you're looking to; if your faith isn't in Jesus and what He did on the Cross, you're essentially on your own.
Examples of misplaced faith include thinking:
- If my pastor prays, God will move.
- If I go to church, pray, and read the Bible enough, everything will work out.
- Paying extra tithe will open windows of heaven.
- Confessing the right scriptures will force God's hand.
All of these are things people have done (and many of them are good!), but when they become the object of our trust (Our Faith) instead of the Cross, they are works of the Flesh (self) with a bit of God mixed in. "If I" is not the Holy Spirit — it is you. This misplacement of faith is why we've fallen and failed repeatedly. We are looking to, relying and depending on things, people other than God. There is nothing inherently wrong with church, prayer, scripture, giving, or pastoral prayer — but they are not the source of victory. The Cross is. You don’t have to “pull scriptures into existence" with your Faith. All you must do is trust (place your Faith) in what Jesus accomplished on the Cross of Calvary which has made ALL of God’s Word “Yes and Amen!” The only way we get anything from God is through the Son and what He has done for us to have access to the Father – The Cross! .
How to realign
When our Faith is not in its proper place, then we are not in our proper place to receive anything from God! God is moved by our Faith! Our Faith in what? The ONLY thing that removed that which separated us from Him (sin) is the Cross of Christ! So yes, we need to repent and turn away (turn away from whatever the thing(s) is and do it no more). This addresses the “symptom(s)”, but not the root cause. Why as a Child of God am sinning? God hates sin, and so do we; but O retched man, who will deliver us from this body of sin. The real problem is where our Faith lies. When our Faith is not in Jesus and Him Crucified, it denies the help of The Helper, the Holy Spirit, in our lives.
The ONLY answer to sin, that which seems to plague our lives, is the Cross. Why?! Because at the Cross, sin was defeated! God’s main reason for sending His son, Jesus, was to defeat sin once and for all. But we must do it God’s way to have His Power, the Holy Spirit, operating His Word in our lives. .
I know this is a lot to take in, but NOW is the time to get it right so we can have the Victory in this life God intended for us to have in His Son, Jesus, who has made the ONLY Way! He is the ONLY Truth and has shown us the Light! Let’s follow Him!. JESUS IS EVERYTHING — and we receive it via the Cross.