Sin. A dripping faucet. Unrelenting. Disturbing. Incessant. We no sooner start our day than it’s dripping. An angry word. A terse answer. Gossip. Hateful thoughts. Distrust. Judgements tossed at others. We repent from one as another takes birth in our thoughts. We say we’re sorry, yet an hour later repeat the same offense. Drip. Drip. Drip. Sin. Endless. Constant.

I lamented to my God, agonizing that “I can’t shut it off. Sin just keeps dripping, Lord. No matter how hard I try, drip, I commit another sin against You. How can I say I’m sorry for all of those drips? You must get so annoyed at the persistence of my weakness.” 

His response caught me off guard.

Instead of sensing impatient disgust or frustrated annoyance at my inability to live every moment free of the pull of the flesh, He changed my perspective. He drew my vision out away from that dripping faucet and I saw what He sees. The faucet was indeed dripping. But the drops were not being collected in a cup. Or sink. Or container of any kind. Collected to be held against me. Being measured and stored for judgement.

 The drips of sin fell onto a wooden cross and trickled down into the vast, deep, measureless oceans of God’s love and forgiveness. Washed away from me as far as the East is from the West. Lost in the swirling ocean of His love. His forgiveness and grace. Of His mercy.

The drip, drip, drip sings out forgiven, forgiven, forgiven. Mercy. Grace. Love.

Is that an excuse, then, to have no concern over sin; indeed to reach up and open up that faucet? After all. Our sins are being washed away in His love. 

Of course not. Paul makes that a clear in his words in Romans 6:1-2. “What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer”? (NIV) 

How about you? Are you worried about that persistent sin-drip in your life? Do you fear that God is collecting, measuring and storing those sins to be used against you? How do we handle the sin-drip?

1.Know God. He is not an ogre relishing our every slip. Eager to hand out punishment. He is compassionate and forgiving to those who love Him and call Him Lord.

2. Live a repentant life. Not out of fear. But understanding He is anxious to forgive a repentant heart. The second we recognize an error, with humility, tell Him. Deal with offenses on the spot, turning away from the sin toward Christ.

3. Move on with hope, peace and joy. Through His transforming power we are being changed. The spigot does tightened, and the dripping slows and we can walk on serving with joy, assured our sin dissipated in the ocean of His boundless, forgiving love.