If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 (NKJV)
I know several people who are smokers and they all hate the fact that they smoke. Several have them have come to me and told me, “I quit smoking!” and I’m excited for them; after all I’m the one that aggravates them all the time about smoking and how they need to quit. However, smoking is a strong addiction and this is what I usually see happen; everything is going good for a while as they resist the urge to smoke. Then something happens that stresses them out and they reach for a cigarette, and they’re back to smoking just like they were. The problem is not that they can’t quit smoking, not that they don’t want to, and not even that one cigarette. The problem is that when they mess up and smoke that one cigarette, they give up trying to quit.
Now hopefully most of you reading this aren’t smokers, if you are quit now! But whether you smoke or not I can guarantee you have been through a similar ordeal. You have decided you were going to stop or start doing something. You start off sailing along and doing great, sure there is temptation to give in but you are stronger then that so you just pick up the intensity. Then the unavoidable happens, you make a mistake, you put your guard down and WHAM! Your perfect plans have been smashed to bits, so you do the noble thing and bow out gracefully; when what you really should do is pick up the pieces, get back on track and keep trucking along toward the goal.
I promise you this; you will never be perfect on this side of Heaven. So, when you mess up, and you will, give it to God and go on. Stop letting a little (or big) mistake stop you from doing what you should do. Let God have your mistakes and He will not only forgive you of them, but completely and utterly cleanse you of them. We all mess up, so the question is: Will you give up too?
