Pastor John,
I loved Jimmy’s testimony tonight, regarding his struggle with tobacco in the beginning of his walk in the Lord.
The sincere desire that he expressed to be free of it, and the utter helplessness that he felt to put it down on his own, gave me such a restored feeling of tenderness and compassion toward people around me that are weighed down with sin.
As one person rightly put it, “sin messes up everything,” and it is genuinely frustrating when a person’s self-destructive behavior invades our peaceful life. But how much sweeter it is to feel a genuine burden for the soul that is living in bondage to sin, instead of feeling frustration or aggravation toward them.
To know that someone is destroying their life because they are simply powerless over the sin that binds them fills me with nothing but sadness tonight for the folk that I know who are in that condition. And it gives me a sincere prayer in my heart for all people who are in that place. They need God, too.
Jimmy reminded me that we are all in that condition, without the miraculous touch from Jesus that makes us free.
I love knowing that; it makes me more like Jesus.
Jerry