Desire to change--first!

"What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Of course not!"
Romans 6:15

This was thought-provoking for me today. Sometimes we can get so comfortable in the sin-forgiveness model. God's forgiveness is so vast and God's grace so wonderful that we can get complacent. We attended a Fire Rally years ago and one of the talks still stands out in my mind. A sister told of going to Reconciliation one time and, as usual, had the same old list of offenses. It had become routine. The priest, sensing this in her, and possibly, tired of hearing the same old list of sins, pulled back the reigns. No, he told her, I am not going to absolve you this time. You need to get to the bottom of why you do the same sinful things and actually make an effort to stop. Can you imagine? She said she felt as though she walked out of the confessional with a huge letter "U" around her neck (for UN-absolved). But, she said it really helped her turn a corner in her walk with God. We need to ask ourselves if we have gotten a bit lax in the areas of our lives we need to work on. Do we go to Reconciliation with the same old list, get that Forgiven card and then walk out, ready to do it all again? St. Paul knew exactly what that was about and he wrote about it to the Romans here in this scripture. We need to go into Reconciliation with the fervor to change our behavior, before we even ask for forgiveness. The desire to change is essential to the process! Love heidi