The Apostle Paul said it best when he said For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. (Rom. 7:15) It can get so hard sometimes trying to do what's right when we constantly struggle with wrong. Now everybody has their own form of wrong doing. It doesn't even matter what your religion is you do something that you would rather be freed of. Everybody, no matter who they are, can improve in some areas of their life, there are just some who's areas that need to be improved on is more visible to outside observers.
The thing is though, no matter what it is that we're struggling with, we're not the only one with that issue. The bible says that "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man" (1 Cor. 10:13). We have things that we struggle with, except our struggles are common struggles. The only reason why we feel like we're the only one going through what we go through is because people never really fully admit what it is they're going through. Nobody likes to expose themselves unless they're comfortable in their mess. But the good thing about our struggles is the second part of 1 Cor 10:13 that says "but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."
We may go through things sometimes but it's not more then we can bare. The proof of that is we're still here. Sometimes people do continuously put themselves in situations that for some reason or another will feel like life is hopeless and so they take their own life. But life is filled with ups and downs. It's what makes us who we are. We grow through adversity. Sometimes that adversity is self inflicted. But as long as we don't give up then we will be able to move forward stronger than we were before going through. It's like lifting weights. When you life weights you're adding resistence to your body with the intended purpose of ripping your muscles. But when your muscles heal from your workout session they'll be stronger than they were before. The various trials and tribulations that we go through are meant to strengthen us. But we get so distraught when we're going through something or when we are victims of our own carnal desires. But say for example you're addicted to drugs, when you are healed or delivered from your addiction then you stand as a testimony to somebody that is going through what you went through. You can be their support. But what do we do, we'll be delivered from something and then say that we're not worthy of mentoring somebody because of what we went through or we'll allow our past indiscretions to disqualify us from operating in the church or in a role that would make us somebody with authority. But those are the types of people that are the best at being a leader in any aspect because they've been through hard times and got through them.
My whole point in this is don't be discouraged if you're going through something that may be a bit disheartening and don't allow your sins to cause you to condemn yourself. Do what you can to move past your indescretions and allow your eventual deliverance be a testimony to somebody else that is going through the same thing.
One last note, it doesn't matter if what you've done has gotten you in jail for life, if you've learned from your mistakes then you can be the voice of reason for somebody on the inside or somebody that might be headed in your direction. No matter our situation, no matter where our sins have gotten us in life, we can still be a testimony to others. Some sins do have far greater consequences than others, but that doesn't mean somebody isn't out there that can't learn from your mistakes.
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