You might think after a certain amount of time with the Lord, you would stop learning about yourself… but the fact is you don’t. I think if you stop learning, then that’s when you know you are in trouble.

There are things that I have grace for in abundance. There are sins that I can lovingly rebuke and can hear that others are struggling with and I never check up at how I see them or emotionally feel about them… however there are others that don’t break my heart… they downright make me mad. They make my head tilt, my eyes twitch, and I have to bite my tongue to be kind because I have little grace to give for these sins.

I have often wondered why these particular sins receive such a deep emotional response within me.

And well I have discovered the reason why…

These are the few sins at their base that do this to me…

1) Sexual Sin

2) Dishonoring Authority

3) Ingratitude

It takes a huge dose of the Spirit to keep me in wise counsel when confronting someone in the midst of these sins. As I asked God one day during my quiet time why these sins worked such emotion in me… He answered me…

Oh Nicole, these are the sins you hate because they were your sins.

These are the sins that I carried and these are the sins that Satan used to hold my chains and to control me for the first twenty-four years of my life. These are the sins that haunt me and these are the sins that Satan and his forces of darkness use to whisper condemnation in my ear… so I hate these sins with a vengeance.

I struggle to not give my “what fors” when I know someone is living in these sins… willfully when they profess to know Christ. I can’t help but question their relationship with Christ because these are the sins that were put to death in me when I met Him and became His.

I don’t understand how someone can say they love Christ and yet willfully practice sex outside of marriage.

I don’t understand how someone can say they love Christ  and then in the next breath cuss out and/or dishonor their parents, teachers, coaches, etc.

I don’t understand how someone can say they love Christ and then grumble and complain about everything and never say thank you or appreciate all that has been given for and to them.

I have learned that I don’t understand these things because these are the things that God in Christ saved me from… and still to this day I hate them. I hate these sins because I know the consequences of them. I have seen the hurt they cause up close and personal. So I hate them.

Yes, it takes every ounce of divine grace I have to hold my tongue and to show love and patience toward a professing believer that I see willfully practicing these… I have to remember that I professed Christ when I was in them as well… though I knew Him not then…

Yet I would know Him indeed.

Please don’t think for one minute that you will hear me say these sins are okay… or pat someone on the back with a there-there as they suffer the consequences of these yet choose to stay in them. I also won’t cast pearls before swine, I will wait for God to move in them though my head is still tilting, eye is still twitching, and my tongue is probably bleeding from the bearing of my teeth upon it. It’s not that they don’t know… they just choose not to obey and God doesn’t force obedience, so neither shall I. God has taught me to let grace and mercy be present in my judgment because it was grace that drew me to the cross and I will trust that it will be grace that brings the others I meet and know as well… I will try my hardest to keep my Bible from pounding upon their head and instead will use it to stand upon in faith and in hope that the love of Christ will triumph in their hearts.

And I will continue to hate these sins so they never rise in me again.