To the girl feeling trapped in sin,
First off, you need to know that you are not alone and that your sin does not define you. This sin that you are struggling with right now is not as big as what Satan wants you to think it is. The devil wants you to believe that you've gone too far and Jesus will never love you again. But he is the father of all lies (John 8:44), and I want to help correct some of those lies today.
God sees all sin as sin. There is no scale of how bad your sin is because it's all bad and it all separates you from God. In Matthew 5, Jesus says that being angry is the same thing as committing murder, so no sin is worse or better than the others. Your sin is not unforgivable or unredeemable, because Christ offers grace to anyone who wants to accept it.
"For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people." - Titus 2:11
Just like in the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), Jesus is waiting with His arms wide open for us to return to Him. He wants nothing more than to welcome us home into His family and enjoy fellowship with us - no questions asked. In fact, Jesus spent the majority of His time here on earth with the sinners: tax collectors, adulterers, liars, and more. He invites all of us to the table, and it's just up to us to accept it.
It's important for me to note that even though God does offer grace and Jesus welcomes all into the family, they don't want us to stay stuck in our sin. Being perfectly God, they cannot condone sin or encourage it. God knows that sin ultimately is harmful to us and prevents us from fully thriving in communion with Him, so of course, He wants to get us out of that. Thankfully, God doesn't expect immediate change, and especially not on our own. God wants to walk with us through the journey of repentance, confession, and eventually, life change.
If you're feeling stuck in sin, I want to invite you to lay it down before God and ask for His grace. Repent (turn away from) the sin you're committing right now and ask Him to help you move away from it. If you're having a hard time knowing what to say, then try praying these words:
"Father, I have fallen short. I have sinned and I recognized by _____ that I have denied You and who You are. I know that by sinning in this way, I have hindered our relationship and I don't want to do that any longer. Please forgive me for _____. I don't want to be stuck here any longer. Please help me to live in a way that honors You and shows others Your love through me. Please show me, Lord, what it looks like to walk with You and live in communion with You. Amen."
Your prayer doesn't need to be eloquent or long or you trying to convince God to forgive you. All it needs to be is you laying yourself down before God and genuinely apologizing for the sin you have committed. That's all.
And just like that, Christ extends the grace we so desperately need. It's only possible through His death on the cross, and now, whenever we ask for it, He wipes our slate clean and forgives us of all our sins.
Please, please, please do not keep your sin to yourself. Share what you're struggling with a mature person you trust. Maybe this is your youth pastor, a small group leader, your mom or even your best friend. It's important that they share the same Christian beliefs as you so that they can encourage you to obey the Lord and challenge you in godly ways. If you keep this sin to yourself, you have no one to keep you accountable and you're fighting this battle alone - and that's most likely not going to end well.
There's no way that I could tell you how to recover from your sin so you don't fall into temptation again. Because honestly, I'm working on my own sin too. I'm a recovering sinner, just like the next person. None of these things that I'm about to suggest are "quick fixes" because changing our lifestyle of sin takes work and time and a whole lotta strength from Jesus. But there are a few things that I want to challenge all of us to do to take steps forward to resist sin and live a little more like the Lord.
Dear friend, root yourself in prayer. Fill your mind and heart with conversations with God. If you are constantly focused on the sin you want to commit, then that will make you more likely to fall into those temptations. Talking with God won't prevent you from sinning, but it probably will give you the strength to resist temptation and live in a way that honors Him. Jesus Himself prayed that the Father would help Him to "resist temptation", and so it must be important that we do the same (Matthew 6:13, Matthew 26:41). If you are struggling with prayer, go check out my blog post "3 Simple Ways to Make Prayer a Habit".
Piggybacking off of the importance of prayer, it's also important to fill our minds with Scripture. The Bible was given to us to use as a weapon to fight against the devil (Ephesians 6:17), and we should use it! When we fix our mind on Scripture, that helps keep the truth and power of Jesus at hand to fight against the temptation to sin, as well as guide us to live in a godly way. Memorize verses that speak to you, make notes in your phone, or fill your house with sticky notes of Scripture. However you do it, use the word of God to help you! And again, Jesus used Scripture to fight the devil as well (Matthew 4:1-11), and won, so it must be effective!
Sweet girl, if you are feeling trapped in sin, I want you to know that you are not alone. You are not defined by this struggle and you definitely do not need to stay here. Accept the Lord's grace and let Him lead you to freedom and redemption from your sin. You can't do it alone, but our God wants to do this with you.
I pray that this post about sin has reminded you of what God declares about His grace and redemption. The entire BIble is filled with truth on how God has saved us and forgiven us, and I hope that has given you a bit of comfort today. It is my prayer that you accept God's invitation to help you get out of the bondage of sin, and that you would be able to find another Christian to encourage you through this process. I know that talking about sin can be a difficult topic, but it is so important that we all can find freedom in Christ.
If you are needing prayer, please let me know in the comments down below and I will definitely be praying for you. Or, if you have any other words of wisdom for someone feeling stuck in sin, drop that in the comments below as well so that we can encourage each other!
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