September is here and now it gets real. Now I know you are probably wondering what do I mean by that statement. Just ask any football fan. Their team may have lost every game in August but they are not concerned. You see, to them those games didn’t count because it was only Pre-season. And in September the season officially starts, and now the losses actually mean something. It is time to get serious with their game.
How serious are we with our game, or let me put it this way, how serious are we with our walk with God? Can we mess up and not really be concerned, like we’re somehow in “Pre-season” because well, we are saved by grace after all. I was entering Walmart with Maria the other day and I overheard a young boy about six or seven years old having a conversation with his mom as they entered the store. She said something like, “No, we can’t afford that at this time…” to which he replied, “Let’s just put it on the credit card!” First of all, I couldn’t believe my ears, how could that little boy even know about a credit card, because to him it solved the issue of getting what he wanted without really paying for it. But alas, he didn’t understand the true meaning of a credit card, not really. He didn’t know that the cost of purchasing a toy on the credit card wasn’t free. The bill would still come due and it would still have to be paid. How often have we fallen into the same trap? Maybe we sinned knowing that His grace is sufficient and that by grace and grace alone we are saved. We are much like that little six-year-old, maybe we think, “I will just ask for forgiveness after I sin. It’s like pre-season football, my sin doesn’t really count for anything because again His grace will cover the cost of my sin. “Yes, we are saved by grace and yes if we sin and confess our sin, he is faithful to forgive us. But, and you knew this but was coming, we are not to have the mind to sin, for we have been given a new mind, a new nature in which we know longer want to sin. After receiving the great gift of salvation our season just got real! What we say and do counts. People are watching us not to see someone who is perfect but rather to see how a broken and imperfect person keeps following the one who is perfect! So, when we sin, we feel grieved inside because our Savior is grieved. We know the cost of the salvation he gave us so we can have victory in our lives. So even though the price for our sins has been paid in full at Calvary, we no longer sin by choice, but when we do sin, we know we can ask the one who loves us and gave himself for us to also forgive us. We are no longer in pre-season and how we live really counts.