Sin, That’s The Only Thing I Know How To Do!

I was reading Brother Lawrence the other day and came across a statement he made regarding sin. When asked about sin he said, “That’s the only thing I know how to do!” As I read on it became clear that he was recognizing and accepting that sin was in his basic nature. We don’t have to be taught how to sin. From birth on we are being taught something. How to walk or read, hold our spoon, and drink from a cup. Basic skills we need to get along in this world. But nobody has to teach us how to sin. We know that from birth. We get angry, rebellious, and envious or display any number of behaviors that are sinful. We do this without any help from anybody. Yet, we have a difficult time accepting that we are by nature sinful creatures. We deny, hide, run from or make excuses for our sinful behavior. Finding it difficult to accept our humanness we put on masks that we wear before people and before God. We think that if He really knew us He would reject us. This inability to accept our basic nature keeps us from God. That is the tragedy. We think that because of our sinful nature, God will reject us.

Andrew Murray in his book Absolute Surrender wrote, “Why is a lamb always gentle? Because that is its nature. Does it cost the lamb any trouble to be gentle? No. Why not? Does a lamb study to be gentle? No. Why does that come so easy? It is its nature. And a wolf – why does it cost a wolf no trouble to be cruel? Because that is its nature. It doesn’t have to summon up its courage, the cruel nature is there.” You can be cruel to a lamb and it will remain gentle. Or, you can be gentle to a wolf and it will still be cruel. If God’s second greatest commandment is, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” don’t you think He understood we were sinful creatures and that we would always be sinful creatures? Do you think that knowledge keeps Him from loving us? Often, we cannot accept our own sinful nature and thus we find it difficult to love ourselves. If we cannot accept ourselves we cannot accept others. Even more tragic is that we cannot accept love from God. If I can understand and accept that it is in my nature to sin, then I begin to do those things that help deal with the sin. Instead of the sin keeping me from God, it drives me to God.

I have discovered that accepting my humanness and knowing that I am going to sin, make mistakes and fail, helps me to quickly deal with my sin and humbly go before my Father where I know there is acceptance and forgiveness. We did not need anyone to teach us how to sin, but we do need God to teach us how to love and accept ourselves. Let’s determine to not let our basic nature keep us from God but drive is to God.