“What does my sin say about my faith?” Well, though it may be pretty ugly, I wouldn’t beat myself up too badly over it. Of course we fail to believe God perfectly! Jesus remains hidden, and we are but human. And even though Jesus, being our example, never sinned in His humanity, it doesn’t mean that we’ll ever reach such a level of perfection while here on earth. No matter how good we ultimately become as God’s children, we will always experience shortcomings in various areas of our lives.

Still, accepting the reality of our circumstances doesn’t mean that we turn a blind eye to God’s truth. Being naïve to the dynamics of sin as it relates to both faith and obedience, unbelief and disobedience, merely serves to weaken our ability to make right choices. The insightful writer of Hebrews says: “Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day…lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”(Hebrews 3:12-13) Notice here how sin hardens us, in turn fostering further unbelief. Like a snowball—growing in size and gaining momentum—sin and unbelief feed on each other, serving to lead the believer further down the path toward alienation from God.

In order to prevent this from happening, we must guard our heart—even from seemingly insignificant sins. At the very least, disobedience stalls our growth. At worst, it hardens our heart to the point where we simply cease to believe. Allowing unbelief to take root is absolutely foolhardy, for when faith is shattered, God no longer has a basis for relationship with us.

While absolute sinlessness may not be attainable, walking in the holiness of Christ is. This is why we must never surrender to the domination of sin in our life, but rather set our heart to pursue growth in our faith through obedience. Even though we’ll never fully arrive at the perfection of sinlessness this side of eternity, the important thing is to keep moving forward.(Philippians 3:12-14) God loves watching His children work out their faith in this way, and will never fail to shower His blessing on those He finds so doing.(Philippians 2:12-13)