From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham

The Bible declares that there can be pleasure in sin. We know this from our own experience. But the Bible also says that sin’s pleasure is only for a season (Hebrews 11:25). Then it’s over, leaving us bitter, and finally destroying us. A day of reckoning always comes. The Bible says, “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).

In Luke 15 we read of a loving father and his son who learned this lesson the hard way. The boy had been reared in a wonderful home where God was worshipped. The young man, though, gazed out in the world and wanted to experience life beyond the gates of home. He asked for his inheritance while his father still lived and went out and foolishly squandered all he had been given. He lived a sinful lifestyle and found himself in a pigpen eating with the pigs. It was quite a different environment from what he had known. He sank so low that he had no choice but to return home in humiliation, planning to ask if he could live there as a servant.

To his shock, his father welcomed him home as his beloved son. A repentant heart brought the father and son back together again and this is what the Lord Jesus will do for all who confess their sin and return home to the Heavenly Father.

True repentance is a turning from sin and living for God. We can be convicted of sin. We can pray and confess our sin. We can repent of our sin. But the real test is our willingness to obey the Lord. Christ Himself gives the power to flee sin and seek His righteousness.

(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)

Ask Christ to forgive your sins. Pray now.