When she got out of rehab there was one thing that now she could not stand for people to do. She had just spent weeks in rehab with people on the brink of death and dying inside. This time in rehab came after years that she had spent battling the drugs herself. Now that she was out of rehab she had a chance to start all over again. She had a chance to be the person she knew she could be before the drugs took her life away. She had written letters asking people to forgive her for all she had done in that past life. She had prayed that she could pick up the pieces of her life and move on. Now it was time, rehab was over and her life was beginning again. She moved to a new town with new people but carried with her the scars and the memories both good and bad. As she met new people, she met some that were using drugs the way she had been just weeks before. As she talked to them there was one thing that they would do that she could not stand...
...and that was to have druggie pride
She had seen people in rehab that still had this problem and now that she was back in the world it was everywhere...
Druggie Pride is when someone that uses brags about all that they have done while they were high. Someone with druggie pride will overlook the negative in doing drugs and only talk about all the fun times they had when they were using.
This type of person may not be using anymore but even if they are not, they find a piece of their identity in the life they led as a drug addict. They build up in the minds of the people that listen to them that drugs are great and the only down side is coming down or the eventual hangover.
She hated when people would talk about drugs that way. She will be the first to tell you that she made some awesome and fun memories while high. But those memories can’t fill all of the hurt inside that was created by lying to people that loved her, watching the lives of her friends spin out of control and the low times of depression and withdrawals between hits.
She would say that those people aren’t helping anyone by acting like drugs are all good and saying that drugs improve life. She knew that drugs were on the road to a dark place she didn’t want to go again. She had found Jesus. She had begun the most important relationship ever and she had left the drugs in the past.
how many of us still dwell on the sins we committed...
We think about how much fun we had while doing them or how great they made us feel when we escaped reality. We leave those bad habits at the door of our hearts just in case we need to go back there again. We have sinner’s pride.
Even though we know the pain and agony Jesus had to endure for our sins to be forgiven, we are quick to make him relive those moments every time we given in again or think about those sins as being the best times of our lives.
Instead of seeing sin as evil and pulling us away from God we view our bad habits and addictions as part of our identity and we even go as far as to rationalize what we do. We rationalize our sin by saying that what we did isn’t as bad as what some people do, and that our sin is okay because it is just in our mind, or only happens when we are really tired, totally alone or completely stressed.
but God doesn’t view sin this way...
He sees sin as what sent His perfect Son to the cross. Don’t get me wrong, if you have asked for God’s forgiveness then you are forgiven. But each time you dwell on your past sins and go back to the same habits and addictions that Jesus has delivered you from then you are mocking his death on the cross.
I am nice guy and if you do something to hurt me I will most likely (Lord willin’) forgive you. But if after you do it, you go around bragging about how fun it was or how you would do it again if you ever got the chance, well then that will probably irk me.
imagine how jesus feels...
Stop thinking about the calm timid hippie Jesus you see in all the paintings and think about the Jesus that overturned tables and cracked the whip in the temple courtyard. That Jesus, while he loves you more than anything, will be pretty miffed by you using the grace and mercy he has shown you as a license to sin all you want.
When you accepted the gift of salvation, part of that was repenting of your sins, to repent means to turn your back on and walk away from. I know that none of us will be perfect, but what repentance is saying is that instead of walking back toward our sinful, lost life we are running toward God even though we will trip along the way.
The verse at the top of the page is saying to us that if we are going to follow God it is going to have to be whole heartedly...
... no more living with one foot in the feces of sin
while the other is trying to step onto the streets of gold...
The Bible says that God sees all sin the same. All sin in the eyes of God deserves death. God’s Son is the one that died the death for all of our sins.
Part of that horrible death that he endured was spent on the cross seeing with his mind’s eye and feeling all of the sin that everyone has committed from the beginning of time until the end of time. So before you go around building up a type of sin as fun, try seeing it through the eyes of Jesus.
our problem is that we see it through our eyes and not Christ’s...
We see getting drunk and think we won’t hurt anybody
and man will we have some stories to tell.
But Jesus sees a family dead in their car coming
home from grandma’s house and a kid passed out
at the wheel of the other car.
We see having sex and think that it doesn’t matter that we
aren’t married and committed, because sex is just a physical thing.
But Jesus sees a girl that just wanted someone to love her
sitting alone in a room holding a positive pregnancy test.
We see a little lie about someone that will never find out anyway.
But Jesus sees a reputation ruined for nothing other than good gossip.
When you see sin the way that Jesus sees sin then you will no longer suffer from Sinner’s Pride. Our goal as believers should be to grow stronger in our walk with Jesus and to get rid of everything in our life that grieves the Holy Spirit within us.
The reason we do this is because when we think about how much Jesus loves us we want to show him that same love back. Take an inventory of your life today.
What entertains you? Is your movie, tv and music life full of the same sins that sent Jesus to the cross? Is your everyday talk and conversation full of the same gossip, lies and obscenity as it was before you were saved? Do you hang out with the same people and go the same places and do the same things that have pulled you down spiritually in the past?
If you answered yes to any of these questions then it’s time for you to go into spiritual rehab and to get rid of the sinful nature that has crept back into your life.
you don’t have to fall away from god...
There is no rule out there saying that anyone has to sin. Jesus was as much of a human as we are and he never sinned, yet was tempted more than us.
Make today the day you remember the price that was paid for you to have eternal life, remember the person that made your hope possible and once again walk away from all sin that pulls you back to your past and away from your Savior.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the
author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary
and lose heart. – excerpt from a letter to the early church
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