In Times of Stress and Turmoil We Are
Tempted to Sin
Barbara Henderson
Well, it seems like a normal day but
it’s not! Most things are going along as
usual, but just a few things are totally out of whack! Have you ever had days like that? Or maybe weeks? Or months? Or even years! There are just a few ‘issues’ that won’t go
away. It may have something to do with
work, or home life, or church, or even a hobby that you love. And in the middle of the turmoil or stress is
usually one person, or one person and his/her followers. What a mess one person can make of what
should have been a lovely day. It can
get to the point that the mere thought of that person sets your teeth on edge
like you have been eating sour grapes!
The next thing you know, you’re
grumpy! You are a little too sharp with
your replies to those around you. Their
feelings are hurt. They are grumpy and
they pass it on to those around them.
Somewhere in the middle of this turmoil is sin. You aren’t the ‘original sinner’ in this
case, but sin is still an issue in how you act.
And that is how the cookie crumbles, or how one rotten apple spoils the
entire barrel of apples. In times like
this one of the most effective prayers we can pray is simply, ‘Help us not to
sin’, or more specifically, ‘help ME not to sin’. ‘Lord help us not to sin’ is
a prayer that is also relevant to every day of our lives – even the days that
are as perfect as earthly days can be.
Here is an article I wrote on that
subject not long after my dad died.
Daddy Always Prayed, ‘Help Us Not to Sin’
My dad was a ‘oner’, meaning the Lord
only made one like him. Mom is a oner as well. It was very obvious to anyone
that a man as peculiar as dad needed a wife equally peculiar. I could tell you
stories about daddy for a solid two weeks without even having to repeat myself
one time. He carefully shielded his children from knowing the stories related
to his time in the Navy during WWII, so I don’t any really bad stories. Most of
the stories involve mom. Together they were able to ‘make it’. To ‘make it’ is
an old fashioned phrase meaning to get through whatever happened. Their goal
was to actually live the life of a committed Christian. They knew a great deal
about what the Bible teaches, and they worked to apply Bible teaching to
personal actions. Now, you can’t get any better than that.
At family gatherings, dad was normally
the one who would ask the blessing on the meal. Sometimes he was asked to pray
in church. Sometimes dad would get to pray over a new baby in the family. In
fact, family members with a new baby were nervous until dad was able to pray
over the baby. He didn’t do some sort of highbrow prayer. He just asked the
Lord to mark the baby’s heart for his own and to bless the little one and his
parents.
Whatever the occasion for prayer, dad
always ended a prayer like this. He said, ‘And help us not to sin. In Jesus
name Amen.’
Now, our youngest grandson prays like
that, although he was not around dad enough to have learned to pray that way
from dad. He is just very well aware that even though you set out to do right,
you often do wrong. This little one is ten, and likely to burst out in prayer
at the drop of a hat. He prays about everything, including indigestion and
nightmares. He has no problem with taking all his problems and trials directly
to God.
So, I see from the elder, my dad, to the
younger, my grandson, sin is recognized as something that we do, but something
that we ought not to do – but we do it anyway. It isn’t that strange. Paul, the
greatest mortal to the Gentiles, had the same problem. What he wanted to do, he
didn’t do. And, what he didn’t want to do, he did. That is all too familiar to
me.
If you look around at the world today,
you will see sin everywhere. I suppose it isn’t that shocking that sin is
everywhere. After all, every human being is born with that sin nature. There is
no escaping it in this life. People born into loving and wealthy families still
sin. People born in poverty and sorrow still sin. Sin is in every economic and
social level. Sin is inescapable, both in our own lives and in the world around
us.
Sin is so common that people begin to
take it for granted. Something as life changing and important as sin is
trivialized to the point that it doesn’t mean anything really bad unless it is
a sin that will get you jail time. Adultery and sex outside marriage are
considered so trivial it isn’t even news. The teenagers and single adults NOT
having sex are the odd ones. The consequences of sex in general like
pregnancies and STD’s are even further trivialized. Pregnant? Just get rid of
it. Pick up an STD? There’s an antibiotic or a shot for that most of the time.
And that is just one area. There are many more.
Christians see the big or bigger sins
all around us. They are easy to spot if you can even recite half of the ten
commandments. It is so easy to say, ‘That is worse than what I do’. And, it
probably really is worse than what you/I/we do.
If I had to pick two sins that cause the
most trouble, the first one would be lying. That is not telling the truth. When
we think of that sin we think of big lies. But, the truth is that most big lies
start with little lies.
And, we think of lying to other people.
But the first person we have to lie to
is ourselves.
We lie about stuff that doesn’t seem
important, but it really is very important.
We lie about things like:
That TV show won’t hurt me to watch, but
I don’t want the kids to watch it.
I have had a very bad day, so that gives
me the right to vent my frustration on family.
I had a bad day and the cure for my
frustration is a relaxing hour drinking fattening coffee and eating rich
desserts.
I
don’t have to be nice to that person because they are not nice to me.
I don’t have to do a good job because I
am under-paid and under-appreciated.
These are all lies, and they all hurt.
Whatever the truth may be, it matters.
We don’t need to lie to ourselves by making things worse than they are, or
better than they are, or more important than they are, or more trivial than
they are.
After lying to ourselves for a while, we
don’t see the problem with a few small lies to others..
It does matter.
And, the second sin I see is that
Christians seem to be sadly lacking in charitable love. Even Christians are
predisposed to love ourselves more than we love others. That is a sin. We are
to love others the way Christ loved us. That was charitable love, love that was
not earned or deserved.
Loving ourselves more than we love
others leads to what I call the ‘disconnect syndrome’. People are just going
through the motions. Even in the middle of Christian families the family
leaders are busy doing whatever they think they need to do above what actually
needs to be done. They need to love family members more than they love
themselves. You can work out the family dynamics yourself, but usually every
family member could be more charitable to other family members. Everyone could
give more time and attention to building a strong family.
I really miss my dad. I wish I could
hear him pray again, ‘Help us not to sin’. We could all add a couple of lines
to dad’s ending for prayer. We could say,
‘Help us not to sin,
Help us to tell the truth
Help us to love each other like Jesus
loved us with charitable love,
In Jesus name,
Amen.
--End article--
1 Samuel chapter 12 gives us an example
of people who had turned away from God’s spokesman Samuel and demanded a
king. Samuel was undoubtedly very hurt
by their actions, but he said, ‘Moreover
as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for
you’. (1 Sam. 12:23a)
Luke 6:28 instructs us to, ‘Bless them
that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you.
You may be tempted to think, ‘I’m not
liking this at all. THEY cause all the
trouble and I’m supposed to pray for them?
The answer is,’ Yes, if you want to be obedient to God you are supposed
to pray for them. It will benefit them,
but it will benefit you more. Praying for those who cause trouble in your life
keeps you from growing bitter and harming those you love. It
keeps the way clear between you and God.
Nothing is more important than that.
