Did you know you have something clinging to you?

Christians talk a lot about "abundant life" and "victorious living", but I have often struggled in my walk with the Lord. There have been times when I fell into bondage to sin, and felt like I would never get free.  I felt like I should change my email address to allan@romans7.com. I wanted to experience freedom, but found myself floundering in sin. What was wrong?


Hebrews 12:1 says, 

So we must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially the sin that just won't let go. 


Sin that just won't let go - Once sin takes root in our lives it is very difficult to pull it out. Like a weed with a long root, we pull off the top of the weed, but it grows right back. Sin clings to us like a bad haircut. I wondered why I couldn't break that bad habit -- Why did I  repent and cry out to God, then turn around and sin again.  It was because sin just won't let go. Even the great apostle Paul cried out  "Who will set me free from this body of death?" (Romans 7, yeah you should probably read it) Roman soldiers used to punish people by tying a dead body to them and making them carry the corpse around for days. Imagine that! That is what it is like to carry around a "clinging sin." Nothing is more painful or shameful - nothing.
How can we get free from clinging sin? The Bible's solution is simple and radical.
"Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed"  James 5. The first step is to confess your sin. For years I struggled with a secret sin that was ruining my life and making me miserable. I felt like a hypocrite and I was filled with self hatred. I confessed my sin again and again to God, but it didn't result in freedom. My life verse was 1John 1:9. The Bible says to "confess your sins to one another."  That's the secret.  I needed to "out" myself. Hebrews 12 says "we must get rid of sin" - WE - nobody does it alone. Finally I confessed my  sin to my  wife, and to some Christian leaders, and others I had sinned against. I thought they would condemn me, but instead they helped me defeat the bully of sin and find freedom and joy  again. 
Sin is like a 300 pound bully. He will beat you down until you just give up. Sin's motto is "Resistance is futile." Sin wants us to believe that we can never be free. I believed Sin for a time, but after I admitted my sin to others I discovered freedom and learned that Sin is a LIAR. I discovered that I could live free. So can you. If you have a "clinging sin", please find a mature Christian and tell them the truth about what you have done/ are doing. Freedom and help is waiting. It's time to leave the shame and the clinging sin behind. You've got a race to run.