Blip. A little yellow light flicked on inside my dashboard. 

I groaned inwardly.

Low tire pressure. Maybe it’ll go away on its own, I thought.

I hoped. I prayed. Like a fool, I drove on the tire two more days.

On the third day, it looked low. On the fourth day? Flat.

As I knelt on the dirty garage floor that evening and grumpily filled the tire with an air compressor, again I thought, “Maybe it’ll go away on its own.” (Because tires tend to go flat for no reason whatsoever, right?)

The next morning the tire looked fine. But something niggled me. Visions of being stranded on the side of the road pricked my brain. I took the car to a shop on the way to work.

The verdict?

A screw. An inch or two of skinny metal. Something so small, yet so insidious, had nearly sidelined thousands of pounds of machinery.

Sin is kind of like that. It worms its way into a vulnerable spot, unobtrusive but deadly.

Warning signs flicker, but you ignore them. You hope the sin will go away on its own.

Outwardly, all looks fine. Until it falls apart. And, suddenly, you desperately need assistance.

James 1:15 tells us that “sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” That screw, allowed to twist in the tire, will slowly produce an inability to function. Death to driving the car.

Sin that we allow to linger will bring spiritual death, separation from the fullness of relationship with God. Have you ever driven on a compromised “tire?” Maybe your ministry suffers. Maybe a relationship dies. Perhaps God feels distant.

The worry, the fear can be exhausting, not knowing yet wondering when the situation will fall to pieces. Trying to handle it on our own is rarely effective. Instead, we require a professional with the proper tools to make us road-worthy again.

You know where I’m going with this.

God offers the assistance we need to get back on track. We read in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Scripture goes on to say in 1 John 2:1–2, “But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Jesus makes forgiveness possible. When we come to Him, He removes the sin screw, patches us up, and heads us in the right direction. He even offers to drive!

My flat tire — and my foolishness — could have resulted in disaster. So can our sins.

God, however, is a master mechanic; He can repair every damaged place.

Do you have damaged places you need to yield to Him?

Share