Cheating can be so tempting

I am not one to diet. I think it's pointless, mainly because people always want to "cheat" on their diets. For whatever reason, I was thinking about this yesterday. Probably because I had made cupcakes for my daughter's class and was thinking about someone saying, "It's ok to cheat on your diet just a little bit." But what got me thinking is, isn't this a lot like how we "cheat" on living for Christ? Ok, just hear me out.

People cheat on their diet because they want to self-indulge. They give in to their flesh and choose not to exhibit self-control. Everyone says, "It's ok to cheat a little bit." But is it?

As I thought about cheating on ones' diet, I immediately thought about how it relates to when we choose to sin just because we want to. We know it's wrong, but we want to self-indulge, give in to our flesh and  maybe sometimes just not have to have self-control. The truth is, we try to justify that it's ok to give in to those desires every once in a while. It's harmless. However, sin is sin. God sees it all the same. Every one of those sins, including the one's that don't seem so bad, nailed Christ to the cross. He had to die for each and every one of them, because sin separates us from God.

When you continually cheat on your food diet, it makes it harder for you to reach your goal weight. When we continue to "cheat" on our spiritual diet (not reading the Bible, not communicating with God, doing what we want even though we know it's wrong) we make it harder on ourselves to reach our goal - Christlikeness.

Don't get FAT on the things of this world.

Now, I'm going to segue this into another thing I wanted to write about that I think actually applies here as well.

Last night, Josh bought some of these plants

Isn't it BEAUTIFUL!

It is called a bleeding heart plant. So after that, and reading Jeremiah 5, I was just reminded how when we turn our backs on God, and choose to disobey Him, His heart bleeds. Countless times in the Bible, we read accounts of the Israelites turning their backs on God, and how angry God was, but also how grieved His heart was for His people.

His heart grieves over His children now, when we turn our backs on Him. When we, even if only momentarily, choose to do what we want to do, indulge our flesh, His heart bleeds.

So the next time you try to justify giving in to that sin, just once, or just for the moment, think about this: Do you want to make God's heart bleed? Do you want Him grieved over your decision to think only of yourself? Is it really ok, to "cheat" just a little bit?

After all, He already came to die for your sin, must He suffer more now. Whew! This is going to be tough, but if I am serious about letting Him have control over my life, that means even when it would be easier to just do my own thing.