Do you value progress? Do you like to see things move forward?

I certainly do.

I like to see things get better. I love to see the church grow and the community become a better place to live.

For several years now, when my church members tell how their children are doing, I say: “There is very little in life as satisfying as seeing your children and grandchildren doing well.”

We love to see progress.

Let me tell you about the most progressive thing I know–and it’s not good.

Sin always progresses. Lawlessness leads to more lawlessness. You see it all the time. Many, if not all, who drink alcoholic beverages can’t take “just one drink, every now and then.” Marijuana often becomes a gateway drug, and pronography can never be satisfied. It always progresses.

Jim Denison (denisonforum.org) quotes the old proverb (not in Scripture, but true nonetheless): “sin always takes us further than we wanted to go, keeps us longer than we wanted to stay, and costs us more than we wanted to pay.” Wickedness and lawlessness lead us ever deeper into sin. Paul describle people who have so corrupted their lives that God gave them what they wanted and “gave them over” to more and more corruption (Romans 1:28-34). The end result of this kind of practice is not only committing egregious acts but giving “hearty approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:34). They sin and applaud others who practice as they do.

I’ve often said that the worst thing that can happen to you is to get your own way. It’s much better to pray “thy will be done” than “my will be done.”

Paul made the progressiveness of sin clear: “Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness” (Romans 6:19).

You don’t have to live this way. By the power of Christ, you can turn this around.

Don’t let sin and Satan have a foothold in your life. Renounce your sin (especially little ones) and ask God to lead you in ways of purity and holiness. Seek first God and His kingdom.

The result will be an ever-increasing holiness and life that is characterized by love, joy, and peace with God, yourself, and others.