Hebrews 3:13
You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.

I was inducting my youngest son into the biblical symbolism in the movie “Lord of the Rings”, when suddenly he casually said, “Mom, why do they want the ring if it does that to them?” How wise beyond his years, and yet he did not fully comprehend his own question. What if we saw sin as it really was, undressed and not sensationalized? What if we knew the effects of cherishing something so vile? What if we recognized sin in our lives instead of rationalizing it away? But sin is deceitful.

The ring represents sin, which will destroy us unless we do so first. Frodo, the protagonist of the film was not able to destroy it, either. But God sovereignly used someone who intended evil (Gollum) for good and only He, God alone, could destroy sin and its power.

Sin tantalizes its victims with the hope of gaining power, and yet instead subdues and destroys the owner. Oh, but sin looks so attractive and is so often concealed. We do not recognize it in every day life and its destructive power. It is laced with frosting, while underneath is a deadly cake.

So how do we avoid falling victim to sin’s seduction? The Word of God and prayer. We are blind and cannot see, lest the Lord opens our eyes. The Word of God is a mirror and reveals our hearts, if we seek truth via an exegetical study versus an eisegetical approach. In another words, we cannot approach God’s word trying to make our ideas fit randomly into Scripture taken out of context.

We also need one another. As a mother, I see worldliness creeping into our churches and our homes. Giving in or doing nothing is doing something – permitting sin to weave its way into our hearts. We need to be accountable to one another in an age of intense social media and we have to take a stand against sin and be different in an day where sin is praised and bragged about. Talking about the temptations and being aware of them can be a great step toward being free from sin’s entrapment.

Lord, help us to be aware of sin in our lives and to surrender to you instead of the sin. Give us strength to persevere and abstain from that which destroys our soul.