I seem to be struggling with my Christian life. I keep dabbling in fornication, which is always painful for me, so I don’t even know why I do it. I also noticed I don’t have a lot of Christian friends around. I can’t seem to actually find any friends, even in my church. I don’t want to keep living like this. I know God wants to use me. I just feel it. But how would He when I keep playing with sin? I want to love God, I want to spread His word, but I am ashamed of my life. I can’t preach when I’m not practicing it. I’m so confused. How do I even know I won’t fail God again?<\/p>\n
I read somewhere that genuine repentance means you don’t go back to the sin again. So does this mean I never repented? Would God ever forgive me again? I keep annoying Him with this same sin.<\/p>\n\t
Repentance means you have a radical change in both your behavior and your attitude toward your behavior. “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter<\/em>” (II Corinthians 7:10-11). What I gather from your note is that you are sorry about sinning, but that sorrow doesn’t translate into you making many changes in your life.<\/p>\n The result is that you live a double life. You act like a Christian at church, but you live like a heathen the rest of the week. Thus, you live the life of a hypocrite (someone who is putting on an act). I suspect that this is why you don’t have many friends at church. People suspect that you aren’t sincere in your beliefs — it leaks through no matter how careful you are.<\/p>\n John pointed out a difference between those who follow God and those who follow Satan. “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother<\/em>” (I John 3:9-10). John is not saying that a Christian is unable to sin. Earlier in the letter, he pointed out that anyone claiming not to sin is a liar (I John 1:8-10). Rather John’s point here is that sinning is against a Christian’s nature. He cannot abide in sin, he is driven to get out of sin, he may slip up but he and sin just don’t get along. The child of Satan is the opposite. He might know he ought not to sin, but he has compromised. He has accepted that sin is in his life. You are doing this, you “dabble in fornication,” and you “play with sin.” What is missing is any horror at what you are doing to yourself.<\/p>\n This is not to say that a Christian won’t slip and fall back into sin, but the Christian is driven to not accept sin in his life, so he changes. “For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, but the wicked stumble in time of calamity<\/em>” (Proverbs 24:16). However, notice that you use the fear that you’ll sin again as a reason for not straightening out your life. If you know you are in a bad state, change. Even if you know it is going to be a struggle, change!<\/p>\n Put your pants back on. Remove all the contacts you have with women you’ve had sex with from your phone and computer. Get radical about changing your life.<\/p>\n\t I am very grateful for your reply. I am doing my best. I have read more on this also. I know this time around I won’t fail God. I also won’t be too confident in myself and put myself in situations that’ll cause me to sin.<\/p>\n Thank you. God bless you and your ministry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I seem to be struggling with my Christian life. I keep dabbling in fornication, which is always painful for me, so I don’t even know why I do it. I also noticed I don’t have a lot of Christian friends around. I can’t seem to actually find any friends, even in my church. I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1572,50],"class_list":["post-50451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-fornication","tag-repentance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":38070,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-return-to-god-after-committing-fornication\/","url_meta":{"origin":50451,"position":0},"title":"How do I return to God after committing fornication?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 21, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning, Thanks for all you do for singles all over the world -- taking questions and giving wisdom-filled answers. God will keep blessing you. I have a huge problem. I'm a leader in my local assembly, and I've been engaging in the sin of fornication with my wife-to-be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16746,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-a-true-christian-fornicate-after-repentance\/","url_meta":{"origin":50451,"position":1},"title":"How can a true Christian fornicate after repentance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I\u2019m a female in her twenties who considers herself a Christian. I\u2019ve had an interest in God since I was a little girl. No one went to church in my family but me. I bring hope to my family. They look up to me because of God. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46827,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-keep-having-sex-with-my-boyfriend-will-god-keep-forgiving-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":50451,"position":2},"title":"I keep having sex with my boyfriend. Will God keep forgiving me?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I don't even know where to start. (Deep breath) Well, I have been going to church for five years. I met this guy who isn't Christian, and we have been together two years. We have been having sex all this time. Every time I feel worse. I ask\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41350,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-just-committed-fornication-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":50451,"position":3},"title":"I just committed fornication, again","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning minister, At this very moment, as I am writing you, I've just committed fornication. I have sinned greatly. My eyes are full of tears. I'm ashamed to even ask God for His forgiveness again. I am struggling with this sinful act. I'm a Christian.\u00a0 I pray. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24451,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-much-repentance-is-needed-before-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":50451,"position":4},"title":"How much repentance is needed before baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a few things that bother me from time to time and I can't seem to be at peace with it. The topic of repentance comes to mind. I have read through some of\u00a0your articles, as well as other articles, regarding repentance and its necessity for baptism (which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36112,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-decided-to-be-baptized-but-im-not-getting-married-for-two-years-and-were-having-sex-can-i-ask-for-forgiveness-after-we-get-married\/","url_meta":{"origin":50451,"position":5},"title":"I decided to be baptized, but I’m not getting married for two years and we’re having sex. Can I ask for forgiveness after we get married?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have decided I will be getting baptized this Sunday. I have been very conflicted lately because my fiance and I have decided to be intimate, but I know it is a sin before marriage. I keep having these thoughts that if I repent once we are married everything\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Response:<\/h2>\n