NOTE: This was already posted, but we lost the article’s data when someone tried to hack our site. So here we go again.
(written by Jon Keene)
Resolution #24
Resolved, Whenever I do any conspicuously evil action, to trace it back, till I come to the original cause; and then, both carefully endeavour to do so no more, and to fight and pray with all my might against the original of it.
This may be my personal favorite to date. To be so aware of your own sin and downfalls, to realize the when and where of your depravity is truly the mark of God’s beloved. I see throughout the present church a type of “forgive and forget” mentality—as if to say, it is always going to happen (which it does), so we shouldn’t worry about it too much when it does. Please do not get me wrong; in a way, that ought to be our attitude with one another. After all, when Peter asked how often we should forgive our Lord responded, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven,” (Matt 18:22). But it is the glancing over of sin that is a terrible mistake. God hates sin, and so should we. In order to fight against it we must take careful action, whatever that might be, to do it no more and, most importantly, fight and pray for God to keep us from it.
I sin constantly, and yet I do not find myself tracing back to the origins of it as often as I should. So what happens? I end up heading down the same crooked path, only to find myself struggling with my old enemy Wormwood1. I think it would be a good thing for us to really take some time to ask what tempts each of us most, in order that we may plead with Christ to grant us the power and obtain mercy in the fight against whatever sin we may be struggling with. May our prayer be like that of the Psalmist, who desires to walk with the Lord morning and night, that our feet are behind His and our hands grasping to the seam of His garment.
Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.
(Psalm 143:8)
1. Wormwood is a way of saying “alluring temptation”. The phrase comes from the name “Wormwood” – a fictional character in C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. In Screwtape Letters, Wormwood is a young demon hell-bent on learning how to secure the damnation of souls. Highly recommend the book.
