When Thoughts Of Sin Thwart Awakening?

During a Bible study class recently, someone asked, "If you have a thought about sin (temptation to sin) and you don't act on it, but you do keep thinking about it, when does it become a sin?" The short answer is, I believe, that if you continue to dwell on any temptation it will ultimately be harmful. James 1:14, 15 tells us, "But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings fourth death".


But how does one know when he/she has dwelt on some sin too long? This is a matter of what is going on in the heart and whether or not there is any sense of conviction.
1 John 3:20, 21 says, "For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God." In other words, if you know in your heart that your thoughts are sinful, though you may not have acted on it, it is sinful to continue to entertain those thoughts.


My questions are these: Why would a believer want to dwell on, entertain, thoughts of sin? Why would he/she want to continue thinking about some sin? At what point do followers of Christ no longer continue in an old way of thinking. Romans 12:1, 2 says, "I beseech you therefore, brethern, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."


If we are to see an awakening of faith in our time Christians are going to have to get serious about how we live our lives apart from sin; live holy, consecrated lives before God. Will we continue to face temptation? Yes. But we do not have to continue to entertain sin in our hearts. In fact the crowning blow to an awakening in our nation and in our churches is that "If I [we] regard [think continually about] iniquity in my [our] heart, the Lord will not hear [our cries, our prayers]" - Psalm 66:18.

For a further discussion of preparing for awakening see the October 28 & 29, 2010 entry into this blog entitled, What Repentance Looks Like and The State of Humility respectively.