Last week I explained why God hates sin and how it mainly keeps you from having an intimate relationship with God. So, in this blog post, I want to get into what you’re missing out on when you don’t have a relationship with God. This is not in order of importance as they are all equally important and serve tremendous value in your life. So let’s get into it!
Protection / Help
Protection is something that God promises believers all throughout the Bible. It is one of the exchanges that we get from serving God and remaining righteous. In Proverbs 18:10, it says “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe”. I want to emphasize the fact that the righteous run to it and are safe. When you have a relationship with God, He is your first option when running to safety. You always think of God first when you’re in trouble. However, when you are in sin, because of the guilt and shame, you actually may want to run from God, even though that isn’t what He wants. God wishes that everyone would run to Him for safety and protection but that is not always the case. When you’re living in sin and outside of a relationship with God, your first thought when you’re in trouble may not be running to God. But I want you to know that it should be, in sin or not, your first resource/source for help should be God. Furthermore, in Psalm 37:39-40, it reads “But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their strength in time of trouble and the Lord shall help them and deliver them; He shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them”. So, here you can see that the righteous again can depend on God to get them out of trouble. God doesn’t make promises like this to people living in sin, there’s a reason why these scriptures say righteous because they are intended for people living in God’s will, not against it. God protects the righteous from the wicked and saves them from all kinds of trouble, but if you’re in sin, you are not offered this protection. When you are righteous you can expect God to deliver you, give you strength in times of trouble, and overall help you. It’s a promise that He cannot break but first, you have to make sure that your relationship with God is intact.
Blessing / Increase
“delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart”.
Psalm 37:4 NKJV
As I said in Why Does God Hate Sin? God cannot reward bad behavior. God blesses those who are after His Will and His Word. For instance, Job 36:11 says, “if they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures”. When you’re living in sin, you’re not obeying and serving God, you’re disobeying His Word and neglecting your servitude to Him. Therefore, living in prosperity and pleasure is not allotted to you, which is why you see people who are living outside of God’s will trying to prosper but it seems that nothing takes off. That’s because scripturally, the wicked are not meant to prosper, it may appear as they are but in the end, they lose it all. Not saying those living in sin are wicked but sin can lead to wickedness, so it is better to give up sin now rather than later. Furthermore, in Psalm 37:4 it says “delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart”. Meaning, seek God’s face, be in His Word, pray, praise, be in church, use your gifts and talents to His glory, and He will give you what you desire (as long as those desires align with the Bible, you’re good 😊). When you delight yourself in God, it’s hard to live in sin because God’s presence won’t allow for sin to abide in the same environment. Also, you just won’t want to sin, the more you engage with God, the more you know Him and how holy He is, you’ll wish to be more like Him as you spend more time with Him. This is why He gives you the desires of your heart because as you become more like Him, through spending time with Him, God can trust you with more. While living in sin, God cannot trust you with much as He can see that He is not your priority, but rather that your flesh is your priority. This is why God cannot give you what you desire when living out of His Will. Make God your priority and He will make your desires His.
Joy
Joy is one of the greatest things that God gives us as believers. We know that when we serve such a great God there is nothing that can bring us down. And Joy is actually instilled in us as believers, Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires”. These qualities, joy being one of them, are only allotted to those who have crucified their flesh, and obviously, if you’re living in sin you have not done that. You are suppressing the Holy spirit when living in sin, so you will lack the fruits of the spirit. I know from personal experience when I sin, I always feel guilty and shameful, and if it’s bad enough I can fall into a depression. But I know that I am at my happiest when I am serving God and living righteously. That is because through serving God, I possess the fruits of the spirit as well as the benefits mentioned above. Like I recognize I am much more blessed when serving God and that alone brings joy and also knowing that I am protected in times of trouble. Additionally, in John 16:33, Jesus says “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”. Jesus was talking about the gospel and how the knowledge of it brings us peace and that through all the trouble in the world, we can still have joy because we have Jesus, the overcomer. However, and it may sound repetitive now but if you’re living in sin, this does not apply to you. Through sin, you are actually allowing the tribulations of the world into your life and additionally, God cannot help you unless you turn to Him. As believers, we are secure in the fact that we have Jesus in our lives, but sinners can’t be. 1 John 3:6, says “Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.” So, according to the Bible, if you’re living in sin, you don’t know God, meaning you lack a relationship with Him. And when you lack a relationship with God, it’s difficult to have peace and joy through tribulations. However, this doesn’t mean you can never have a relationship with God, if you repent, then all the things in the gospel that bring us good cheer can now be yours. You can now be secure in the fact that Jesus is in your life and has overcome all the struggles that come with it! And because of that you can be joyful and walk around with a smile on your face! Sin takes away too much and keeps you away from too much, repent today so you can be secure in Jesus and in your salvation!
Power in Christ and Over the Enemy
“Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you”.
Luke 10:19 NKJV
The power that Jesus gives us through having a relationship with Him is huge. When you’re living in sin you are missing out on this very vital part of Christianity. The only way that Christians overcome is through the power that Jesus gives us and you cannot obtain this power and authority while living outside of God’s Will. Luke 10:19 reads, “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you”. This is a huge privilege that the believer has through a relationship with Christ because as Jesus’s spirit lives in us, we have the same authority He has. However, when you’re in sin, you are suppressing the spirit of Jesus and instead of having authority over the enemy, you are actually opening a door for him. Sin invites the presence of the enemy and gives him free rein in your life, but when you are living a righteous life through a relationship with God, the enemy has no authority over you. Matter of fact, you have the authority to tell the enemy to beat it and command that he doesn’t bother you or your life. Furthermore, in John 10:10, Jesus says, “the thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly”. Jesus promises that the believer will have an abundant life and of course that comes with serving Him and living a righteous life. Now, Jesus doesn’t plan on the enemy stealing, killing, and destroying your life, sin does that on its own. When one lives in sin, as I said before, they don’t have authority over the devil. So the devil can steal, kill, and destroy your life as long as you allow it. You need to give up sin in order to live this abundant life that Jesus is talking about. You need to live righteous through a relationship with God and you will have a right to all of the things listed above: protection, joy, blessing/increase, and power through Jesus. There are more that belong to you as a believer and that you can miss out on due to sin, but I will get into those next week.
The most important thing I wish for you to take from this post is that a relationship with God is pivotal if you wish to have a fulfilling blessed life. If you want more out of life, more from God, stop and examine your faithfulness to Him. A relationship with God is two-sided, you both put in work; You live righteously and serve God and God fulfills all of His promises to you. I hope this helped and God bless. Be on the lookout for “What is Sin Keeping You From Part Two!” next week!
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