January 5 | Never Going Back
1 Peter 4:3, “For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do–living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.”
“You don’t have to get drunk or smoke weed with us, just come by and hang out,” my friend said to me after I told him I didn’t do those things anymore. He insisted that we could still be friends even though I told him God had changed my life. Sadly, I gave in to his peer pressure and went to the party as a new Christian.
When I arrived, everyone was nice, but once they realized I wasn’t going to cave and party with them, they started to ignore me. After a short time, my so-called friends were wasted and acting like fools.
While I was watching them I thought, “What am I doing here? Is that how I used to act? I don’t want this junk in my life anymore!” I left and told myself, “I’m never going back.”
All of my previous time, partying and doing sinful things, had actually been enough for me to realize that I didn’t want those things anymore. I didn’t even want to be around it. I didn’t need to experience any more perversion, drunkenness, drug use, foul language or the like. I was done.
My friends continued to call and tried to get me to go out with them, again, but I remained firm in my convictions and said that if they wanted to hangout with me, they could meet me at church or for lunch for Bible study. Though it was hard, at first, for me to leave my old life behind (I didn’t have many church friends), my new best friend, Jesus, was all that I needed. My heart had a new song, Sundar Singh’s, “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.”
Eventually, it got easier for me to not go back to my old life because my sinner friends stopped calling me to party; and, I made new righteous friends who loved serving Jesus. Now when I look back, I can clearly see that God has never let me down. I can testify “There ain’t no high like the Most High!” My old, partying friends still call me from time to time, but now it’s for a very different reason. They call me to ask for prayer and advice on how to leave their old life behind.
Reflection
Are you sick and tired of your sin and old life?
Action
- Examine your heart to see if there are any sins you like to keep doing.
- Ask God to give you a holy hatred for your “favorite sins” and to see them the way He does.
- Every time you are tempted to think positively about your past sinful days, remember that it was those days that put Jesus on the cross and damned your soul to eternal hell. Be grateful for salvation and a new life!