So recently and by recently I mean about 15 minutes ago as of writing this, I was being tempted. If you have read through the chapters carefully some of you might know that I struggle with lust. One out of the million things I struggle with. So I start sinning. Some of you are probably thinking right now and saying something like *wow David that is so discouraging! I came here for encouragement and to be uplifted!* And yes I was discouraged as well. WAS. but I did something different this time.
So I had memorized verses earlier as well and I still gave in to temptation. I mean we are going to be tempted no matter how much we don't want to be. It's not like we can escape it. But I was sitting there and I stopped. Before I could go any further I turned away before I did anything worse. How did I feel afterwards? Like crap. Like I still sinned which I had. But I had to think about truth.
The truth that growing is a process; it takes time. Sometimes we look to the Bible for answers which is amazing. There are plenty of verses about growing and we really want to find the one verse that uplifts us and makes us feel good! But I think sometimes all we have to do as Christians is look and view what we did and realize that change does not come instantly. God works in us but you cannot expect to automatically pass every temptation that comes your way.
My dad told me an expression a couple of days ago which was random but it stuck by me especially now and it says something like "is the glass half empty or half full?" Now I believe you can apply this with anything/everything and what this means is you can look at everything with your glass half empty (pessimism) or your glass half full (optimism).
Some of you are probably like what does that have to do with anything we are talking about? Well at first I viewed my sin as "Oh I just sinned again I'm not growing at all" but then giving some time to think about it I viewed it as "I turned away this time. And growth does not come instantly but this was a step in the right direction." If I'm able to turn away from my sin now, maybe someday I will be able to not give in when the temptation comes! I looked at my glass half empty before only looking at what I did but then I saw it half full and I realized I'm growing because the difference was I did not continue in my sin even though I sinned. Whether small or large, that showed growth.
That is my encouragement to you guys today. I hope you got something out of this chapter because I can definitely relate to this and I hope you guys do too! Just know that if you are struggling with sin you are not alone and if any of you guys need to talk about it I am open to listen.