The Heart of Sin (Luke 12)

I love the part in today’s reading (Luke 12) where Jesus says “Do not worry” and “Do not be afraid, little flock…” and I hate it too. I hate it because though I don’t consider myself a worrier or someone driven by fear, I am a control freak. I want to know how things are going to go later now. In fact, I want to be the one who decides how they’ll go.

And I think that’s sin.

In fact, I think it’s the heart of sin. Sin is independence from God. God is sovereign, He is Lord, He is in charge – and trying to wrestle the steering wheel away from Him is sin. And I’m great at that. Like now, starting this church in Vegas, I keep jumping ahead in my mind, “How will this end up?” “How can I force this to happen?” “How can I make sure this result occurs?” And all of that is very natural and there’s nothing wrong with it except that it’s sin. That’s why it’s natural, and it’s why I need to stop. I need to let God be in charge, stop being independent, and just trust. It sounds like a Christian cliche kind of thing to say but … it’s true.