THE REFUGE DEVOTIONAL

Mortify Sin

“I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, For My anger has turned away from them.” Hosea 14:4 NASBS

Christian reader, let not sin be exasperated in your heart, but rather mortify it through willful obedience. While it is today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart, but rather plumb down into the very depths of your soul and confess your sins to the Lord Jesus.

Do not allow, for one more moment, sin to harden your heart. Sin, if not resisted, will sink you deep into despair. It will take away the joy of your salvation that you had at the very beginning, when Christ called you from the sepulcher of darkness into His marvelous light.

Sin must be dealt with and taken seriously because It will destroy your life, causing you to act corruptly, turning the eyes of your heart to fulfill your selfish desires. It will blind your eyes from gazing at the cross where Jesus paid for your sins.

So do not become blind to the truth that has been birthed into your heart by the miracle of regeneration. Because if sin gets a foothold in your life, it will dull your senses to the reality of its consequences, and will cost you very dearly in this world.

Therefore, sin must be mortified, the root as well as the branch, if you would experience the true joy of the Holy Spirit. It is a joy that only comes from the Lord that springs forth in your soul crying, “eternal life, eternal life!”

Jesus give a physical illustration of how serious we should wage war against inward sin by saying, “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.”

Beloved, do you not understand, sin weakens faith, enfeebles grace, and destroys the spirituality of the soul, rendering it barren and unfruitful. So rest not my friend, until its utter mortification, lest you find yourself drifting away from the living God.

“Oh, yield not to despair, distressed soul! Art thou longing for a gracious revival of God’s work within thee? Art thou mourning in secret over thy heart’s declension? Hast thou searched and discovered the hidden cause of thy decay? And is thy real desire for its mortification? Then look up, and hear the consolatory words of thy Lord: ‘I am the Lord that healeth thee.’ The Lord is thy healer; His love can restore thee; His blood can heal thee; His grace can subdue thy sin.”

So take care, beloved of God, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, but pray unto Jesus, “Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously,” and He will answer, “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for mine anger is turned away from him.”

So, “Encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.”