How a Sin Learns to Pray

Hit the heart. Restack it.

Saul was told to kill everything. He kept the best sheep.

When Samuel showed up, Saul had a reason ready. “To sacrifice unto the LORD thy God.”

He did not say he kept the sheep because he wanted them. He said he kept them for God.

That is the part I could not shake this morning.

Here is how a sin gets there.

First it is a sin. You know it. You feel sick after. You confess it in the truck.

Then it is a habit. You still confess, but faster. The sick feeling shows up late, then not at all. Paul has a word for that stage. “Past feeling.” Ephesians 4:19. A conscience “seared with a hot iron.” 1 Timothy 4:2. The nerve is dead. You can hold your hand on the stove.

Then comes the strange part.

You start to justify it. Not to other people. To yourself. And the justification borrows God’s language, because that is the only language your heart has left. The affair becomes “God wants me happy.” The porn becomes “a release so I can be a better husband.” The grudge becomes “discernment.” The money becomes “provision.” The rage becomes “righteous anger.”

And one day, without a single decision, the sin is not something you do against God. It is something you do for Him.

That is Saul with the sheep. That is the men Jesus warned about. “They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” John 16:2. Not will pretend. Will think. They will believe it.

Isaiah saw it coming. “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20. That woe is not for the pagan. The pagan never called it good. It is for the man who built an altar on it.

Paul said it was the oldest move there is. “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.” Romans 1:25. Worshipped. Served. Those are church words. Paul used them on purpose.

Samuel did not argue with Saul about the sheep. He argued about the worship. “And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” 1 Samuel 15:22. You cannot bring God a sacrifice made out of the thing He told you to kill.

So here is the test. It is short.

Take the sin you have made peace with. The one that stopped making you sick. Now ask what you call it. If it has a Christian name, you are further along than you think.

Yesterday I wrote about the two halves of repentance. Confess it. Forsake it. This is what happens to a man who only ever does the first half long enough. The confession wears a groove. The groove becomes a liturgy. The liturgy becomes worship. And the thing on the altar is the sheep God told you to kill.

Kill the sheep. Tonight.

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If you cannot give, forward this to the man who has a Christian name for his sin. That counts.

Adam