James 1
Scripture: Verse 15
These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.
Observation
James is talking about temptation. He says that temptation is where sinful acts begin. When we give in to temptation, all that will come of it is death.
Application
I often let Satan get the best of me, making me think that my sin won’t hurt anybody… Or at least not anybody but me. But there are so many lost people in my life who aren’t going to find Christ if my life isn’t radiating God’s love to them. And my life won’t be radiating God’s love if I fill my life with sin. Therefore, it really does lead to death for me to sin. It leads to the death of everyone around me who doesn’t yet know Jesus, who I could be leading into a relationship with Him. If I continue to say no to God, how will they be saved? I must start to see sin how God sees it. Purity doesn’t spread in a glass of water; pollution does. Health doesn’t spread from person to person; disease does. Sin is pollution and a disease. If I’d look at it that way, I wouldn’t willingly walk away from God and indulge in my own desires ever again. The lives of the unsaved around me are too precious to gamble like that.
Prayer
Lord, I’m sorry that I have been filling my life so much in the past with sin, which is keeping my life from radiating Your love. Sometimes it just seems like even if I am in the Word and praying and radiating love to people, nothing ever comes of it. Help me to endure that, to see that even one life changed because I said yes to You is worth a lifetime of denying my own sin nature. Help me to get passionate about people finding life in Christ, so much so that I cannot live with sin anymore. Thank You for Your abundant forgiveness. I would be nothing without You.
