| | Hey there, child of the King!
This week is week 3 of our look at sin. And this week’s main point made me absolutely, physically sick. This week we talk about sin’s ripple effect—how it impacts so many people, especially the innocent. If you’ve ever been sinned against, you know how this works. It's absolutely awful!
In high school, I had someone break into my car in the parking lot. All they took was a box of animal crackers (go figure), but they tried to hot-wire my car, and when I first saw my car, all of these wires and stuff were hanging out of it. Seeing it sent chills up my spine. For months afterward it didn’t feel like my car anymore. My safe place, my car, had been made unsafe. Technically, all I lost was animal crackers and the mechanic bill to get my car put back together, but I lost more than that. I lost security. I lost safety. I know that sounds silly, but it’s true! Someone else’s sin stole from me. And sin does that every single time. It never affects just one person—and it’s the innocent that takes a lot of the heat from sin a lot of the time. Can you see how that has happened in your own life?
So, let’s continue our mission to roundkick sin in the face, shall we? (I really like that imagery. :o) No more of this sin bologna! Let’s fight against it in our lives—we are children of the King!
Have a great week, loved one!
Laurin
Here’s this week’s devo:
Sin’s impact is way bigger than we think it is.
[READ] Sin doesn’t just affect us—it affects the people around us too. That’s because we’re all connected. Like one tumbling domino that causes the rest to fall, sin can have a domino effect on people around us. Adam and Eve’s sin affected us all—putting us under a curse of death (Romans 5:12). In a similar way, a small group of men flew planes into the Twin Towers on 9/11. But they didn’t just kill themselves. Thousands of people lost their lives, and not only that—every person in our country lost a sense of security.
In the same way, a few greedy people made selfish decisions that caused our entire economy to collapse. A few people made sinful choices, but everyone suffered the consequences—even people who were leading honest and unselfish lives.
Sin affects relationships in the same way—sin affects way more than just the sinner. If we steal from someone, they not only lose their possession, they lose a sense of safety and security. When we lie to someone, we commit the sin, but the other person loses trust in us. Sin never impacts just one person.
[THINK] The community effects of sin can last longer than just the here and now. God shared that the consequences of sin can ripple through a family for generations—even the third and fourth generations (Numbers 14:18). It’s easy to see this effect in sins like divorce and adultery, where the emotional scars can be passed on for generations.
But what about other sins? Or those things we consider to be “smaller sins,” like white lies? Could there be long-term consequences with them too? God’s Word implies that all sin has a lasting effect. While people are only held accountable for the sins they themselves commit (Ezekiel 18:20), somehow the negative effects of sin echo into future generations. Even if we can’t see the consequences now, they may surface down the road.
[MORE] Scripture teaches that the spiritual condition of our nation affects how God interacts with us as a people—affecting even the weather. Israel’s sin caused curses like famine and drought (Deuteronomy 28:15-48). God had promised that if Israel obeyed Him, their crops would grow. He would send rain. They would have food to eat. But if they disobeyed Him, God would send famine, plagues, and diseases—all with the intention of drawing His people’s hearts back to Him. The nation’s well-being was affected by sin. Could it be that the same applies today?
[LIVE] Respect the power of sin. It’s costly and it’s far-reaching. It’s more far-reaching than we realize—affecting the people connected to us, the generations beyond us, and the way God interacts with us as a nation. We don’t completely understand how all of this works, but God has told us the truth about the effects of sin. We must live and act in light of the truth, even though we don’t fully understand it.
Your decisions echo beyond you. By your obedience to living God’s way you can choose to protect your children and grandchildren and be an umbrella of protection and blessing for generations to come. Today, ask God to help you set up the generations beyond you for a life of blessing and closeness with Him.
[NXT LVL] Sin can also rob you of eternal rewards. Read Revelation 22:12.
For more devos like this, or to subscribe to YW Magazine, check out YW’s website: www.ywspace.org. |
| | Posted 10/20/2009 2:34 AM - 17 Views
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