I take my pet sins for walks

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I just remembered that I have to pick up my dry cleaning before going to work.  (I hope it's ready or I'm in a world of trouble.)  You ever have a moment like that?  Where a sudden moment of panic fills your mind?  Did I leave the stove on?  Did I shut off the iron?  Did I blow out that candle?  For those involved in secret sin, this becomes much more problematic.  Did I hide that pack of condoms?  Did I erase the web browser's history?  Did I ditch that trashy romance novel?  Will he find out?  Will she be able to tell?  Wait, did my pastor hear about that night out with people from church?  That was a rough one.

So many believers have these secret sins, these pet sins that we nurture.  When preaching, I often speak of our "pet sins."  For those who have dogs, they know it involves walking them, feeding them, playing with them, training them, taking them to veterinarian's appointments and so on.  There is a personal investment into these beloved pets; we care for them so they can grow and develop into healthy animals.

We often do the same thing with our sin.  We nurture it.  We care for it.  We take it for walks.  We play with it.  We tell it how much we love it and we turn to it when things are rough.  We feed it more fire.  We train it to happen at the right moment.  We make an agreement with Satan that this sin will satisfy us and we live in accordance to that contract we have signed with the pens of our souls.

Paul writes, "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.  It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.  But everything exposed by the light becomes visible - and everything that is illuminated becomes a light" (Ephesians 5:11-13 NIV).

Expose these secrets to the light of Christ's love and His mercy.  James tells us to "confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective" (James 5:16).  This is so difficult to do, I know.  It is so much easier to read about these things than to put them into action.  Still, if we seek to honor God we will set these instructions in the forefront of our minds.  True story.