What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (Romans 6:1-2, NIV)
It’s never fun to dwell on the negative. But sometimes you have to take a good look at what isn’t working if you’re going to move toward fixing it.
In general, golfers are probably harsher on ourselves than we need to be, especially those of us who aren’t playing for a living. Absolutely I expect my accountant to keep my business affairs up to the highest standards, but I permit myself to be a lot more casual when it comes to my household expenses. So why can’t I do the same with my golf game? You know, relax.
Even as a believer, I will sin. I should hate this! I do hate this!But there is a reason, and it’s that my golf—unlike the sorting of my unruly household receipt pile—is played in front of others. I want to get it right, at least to the best of my ability. So one thing I know is good for me if I am going to improve my game (or at least maintain it as I grow older) is to take a look at what’s hurting my scoring and spend time practicing in those areas.
There are some key parallels here to my walk with Christ.
For one, I do not live my life in secret. As a believer, I understand that I live—before God, before the “great cloud of witnesses,” and before the brothers and sisters with whom I am in regular fellowship. More than this, if I am a leader, I am more closely scrutinized according to the responsibilities I have been given.
Next, my foundational desire should not be to look right before others but to get it right before God. There’s a difference, and it’s a big one. If I am only trying to gain the praise of those who watch me live, I am prone to pride and to compromise. Neither of these are right at their core. What’s right at the core is an increasing awareness of God’s word and a commensurate effort to obey it.
This awareness and effort require one other thing of me: a recognition of my sin. Even as a believer, I will sin. I should hate this! I do hate this! Before I was a believer, I may have hated the consequences of my sin from time to time, but I did not hate my sin as I do now. For now, what I should recognize is that to go on sinning is to dismiss the grace of God in sending his Son to die for me. To go on sinning while I say I believe is a bad reflection on me, but it is a tragic representation of who I say Christ is in me.
So, in the end, as a man or woman of God, I must ache as Paul did at the sin that still rears up in me. I must humbly admit that I have no real strength to battle it on my own. But I must with great pleasure and confidence cry out to Jesus, “You are my Lord and Savior, dear Jesus. You died to take this sin from me and make me right in the eyes of the Father and of men. Do so again today. Fortify me to move on from this and walk in a way that shouts praise to you.”
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Jeff Hopper
July 11, 2018
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.