My room looks amazing. The floors are clear, my desk is organized, and my closet is arranged in (almost) perfect order. It could not look more beautiful.
Three hours later…
I need to clean my room.
Three more hours later…
Why isn’t it still clean?
Three more hours later…
This is hopeless.
I couldn’t pass up such a wonderful analogy, friends. Christians are just like this—except our “rooms” are our Christian lives.
We get frustrated with our Christian lives, and our frustration often looks something like this: “Wow, I’m on fire for Christ! I would do anything for Him. I love Him so much. I just want to serve Him. He’s going to be first in my life from now on.”
Three hours later…
“I need to rededicate my life to Christ again.”
Three more hours later…
“Why can’t I do anything right?”
Three more hours later….
“This is hopeless.”
Christ’s instructions are simple—love Him and love others—yet we tend to make the Christian life so messy and complicated.
I’ve complicated it, too. And it often leads to feelings of hopelessness and defeat.
Believers begin the Christian walk hopeful and exhilarated. We have incredibly high expectations for ourselves. But the next day, we fail. We fall into sin. We give up. And then the process starts all over again.
Friends, some of the ideals you have for yourself may not be realistic. You can’t be deep in sin one day and totally in love with Christ the next. It’ll take time for you to grow as a believer. But you also can’t continue in sin and expect to experience growth.
Don’t be too hard on yourself but be hard enough on yourself. There’s definitely a balance.
However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and elementary principles, to which you want to be enslaved all over again? (Galatians 4:8-9 NASB)
Why do we turn back to sin even though we know God? Here are a few reasons:
- We set our ideals too high. We’re never going to be perfect, and it takes time to go from feeling trapped in sin to feeling free in Christ. A deep, genuine relationship with God takes a long time to develop and will never stop developing.
- Sin is comfortable. It’s fun, inviting, and attractive. Nothing can change that. It’s a hard reality, but it’s true.
- We give up when we fail. When we keep falling into a particular sin, we condemn ourselves. We give up trying because we feel like we’ll never get it right (and with that attitude, we won’t).
This messy room won’t clean itself up. We need to be dependent on God, but He won’t make our choices for us.
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:14-16 NASB)
Your messy room can be cleaned up over time, but it won’t stay clean. It’s important to realize this before you set unrealistically high expectations. Simply try to be holy. Try to be obedient. Try to honor God. You won’t get it right every time, but the more you depend on Him and seek to please Him, the longer your room will stay clean.
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