Sin has consequences – What should we do with it?

“Then Jehoahaz sought the Lord’s favour, and the Lord listened to him, for he saw how severely the king of Aram was oppressing Israel.”

-1 Kings 13:4, NIV

In 1 Kings 13:1-9, Jehoahaz became the king of Israel. In his reign, he did evil in the eyes of the Lord as he followed the ways of Jeroboam, which also has caused Israel to commit sin. Because of the sins that Israel has committed, God became angry, and for a long time, the Israelites were under the oppression of Hazael, king of Aram. But then, King Jehoahaz sought for the Lord’s favour, and the Lord listened to him as He could see how Hazael oppressed Israel. Then the Lord has provided a deliverer for Israel to escape the power of the Aram. The Israelites, then, went back to their own homes but still did not turn back on their sins. And as for King Jehoahaz, only few soldiers were left under him as the Aram has destroyed the rest.

In this event, God told me that like King Jehoahaz and the whole of Israel suffering from the consequences of their sins, we, too, have consequences we have to face for the sins we commit. These consequences will most of the time put us into a deep misery, like what happened to the Israelites when they were being oppressed by the Aram. But we must always remember that even though we have done evil in the eyes of the Lord every time we commit sin, God is always there ready to listen to us. God knows all of the misery we are going through because of the sins we have committed, and if we only seek for His favor, He is more than willing to deliver us from the misery we are in – like how he delivered Israel from Aram. However, we are only delivered from the misery that the consequences of our sin has caused us, but the damage of the consequence of the sin we have done will still remain, like what happened to King Jehoahaz when only few soldiers were left to him.

And so from this, there were two things that God has revealed to me that we should always remember and apply into our lives:

First is that if we want to avoid the misery that the consequences of our sin will give us, then we should avoid committing sin on the first place! This is self explanatory – there would be no consequence for our sin if we avoid committing it. We should be able to control and discipline ourselves and strive for holiness, for we are called to be holy! We should completely hate and persecute sin, overcome temptation and the demons so that we could avoid committing any sin.

And second, if we already have committed sin, instead of hiding it and trying to solve its consequences by ourselves, we should seek for God’s favor, ask for forgiveness and deliverance from the misery that the consequence of our sin has brought us. God is always there and could see our sufferings, and He is always willing to listen and help us – and He will help us if we ask Him to. But also, we must be strong enough to endure the damage of the consequence of the sins we have committed as its mark will be left there even though God has delivered us from our misery.

Original link for the photo: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/december/images/misery_news.jpg