Slaves of Sin

     As I was doing my quiet time tonight a verse really spoke out to me. It was Romans 6:14 and it said, "For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace." I feel like we forget that sometimes. That after we decided to dedicate our lives to Christ that He lives within us now and we are no longer slaves to sin. It uses the phrase "slaves to sin" a lot in Romans 6 and I believe that what Paul was trying to emphasize was that before we were even on this earth Christ was crucified and put through such as struggle so that one day we could live freely. So that we wouldn't have to be slaves to sin, but instead slaves to obedience. As I read about this in Romans I couldn't stop thinking about how we view sin and grace.

     In Romans 6:22 Paul writes, "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life." We view sin sometimes as lesser because we have this undeniable grace from God when we should actually be viewing it as what is keeping us from our eternity. When I read that verse I feel so much joy. I read again that we are not slaves of sin anymore, but slaves of God.

     I think sometimes we carry the sins of our past with us throughout life and it holds us back from truly living and seeking the most amount of joy that life has to offer. I know personally that I have been too caught up in the sins of my past before and wondered if I would ever find true joy again. We tend to forget that once our sins have been forgiven by God, He forgets those sins. So why don't we? If us as earthly people can stop tearing ourselves down for every mishap and mistake then we can get back to what we were put on this earth to do. Which is to go out and make disciples. But, if we are too caught up in reminiscing on the sins of our past then it is hard to fill out our true destiny.

     I am a big believer in encouraging living. Really living could be different for everyone. It could be traveling the world for some or watching Netflix for 12 hours straight for others. But I love seeing the people around me excited about the day they are in and anticipating the next to come. That's how I have been trying to live. I keep myself busy with things I love doing so that every day I have something to look forward to, and I believe that is truly living. Not letting your fears or insecurities get in the way of what makes you look forward to the next day. So I encourage living every day and in the people around me. Release the shame. Release the guilt. Release the fear, and forgive yourself so you can truly live too.