Have you ever gone to an Arcade? I know in the age of Xbox and “Candy Crush”, Arcades aren’t as popular as they once were. But they still exist. I used to go when I was a kid growing up. Do you remember the Groundhog game? I don’t know if that’s what it was called but the game consisted of a table with a bunch of holes. You’d have an anvil or hammer and out of the holes would pop up a groundhog. The goal would be to hit the head before it went back down. If you hit it just in time, you would get a certain amount of points. If you’ve ever played at first it starts out easy with one groundhog popping up its head but then after awhile it gets harder. Multiple groundhogs begin appearing and at a faster rate until eventually you’re not hitting groundhogs, you’re just looking stupid swinging away and achieving nothing but getting yourself frustrated. Kind of in the same way, as Christians we all have that certain sin or sins that like the groundhogs, keep popping up in our lives. There is always that one sin that no matter how hard you try to bop it on the head, it keeps coming back up again and again. You then tell God I’ll do better next time and you put more quarters into the machine and you even tighten your grip on the hammer but again the sin just becomes too overwhelming and before you know it, it’s game over leaving you to feel again like you’re the biggest loser. You feel embarrassed, ashamed of yourself, like you’re the worst Christian ever. Is there something wrong with you? Then we live in this cycle where we criticize ourselves, live in shame, try harder and then fail again. We then ask for forgiveness from God again and again and we start to wonder if we’ve used up all our free tokens to get another chance to play the game again. The bad news is that for a lot of Christians including myself, we live most of our lives struggling to keep those sinful desires from coming back and controlling us. However, there is good news. It doesn’t have to be this way. In fact to go back to the groundhog game illustration. Think about this, if you truly want to win and defeat the groundhogs, it’s not going to be found in trying harder. No, there’s an easier way. All you have to do is go over to where the outlet is and unplug the game. I guarantee it, there will never be another groundhog rearing it’s ugly head again. In the same way, Jesus gives us the key to overcoming our groundhogs. The Bible says that we have two natures. There’s the old nature or the flesh and that’s where the sinful habits and desires derive from. Then after we put our faith to receive Jesus we are now given new birth into a spiritual body, this is the new nature. The Bible tells us that when we put our faith in Christ something miraculous happens to us. The old nature with all its evil desires has also been nailed to the cross and when Jesus rose from the grave we too rose again with Him into our new nature. “That’s nice”, you might be saying, “but I know I’m a Christian, then why am I still struggling with all these sins controlling me?”. Remember scripture says, “Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation, the Old is gone, the new has come”. My question to you is do you believe that? You may know that verse but if it’s not happening in your life you don’t believe it. So what do you do? Do you muster up the strength to believe it more? No, you simply remind yourself of this truth and accept it. You go over to the outlet and remind yourself that the old man is already unplugged! The scripture says, “I’ve been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me”. The old man is dead! He is not coming back ever. But when we stop renewing our minds with this truth we forget and it’s as if we go over to the outlet and turn the game back on. We don’t need to. It’s been done on the cross and the victory has been given to us through His resurrection. Struggling with those relentless annoying sins? It’s time to say goodbye to your groundhogs. Put down the hammer, you can’t win that way, remember the game is already over. He won it at the cross, the old man is dead, the game is unplugged. Plug yourself into the scriptures of God’s truth about you. Collect your tickets and go receive your reward in His gift shop. There are so many spiritual blessings, to choose from like self control, patience, peace to name a few and whatever you do don’t get too cocky. Without Him we are nothing! Praise Him, and don’t forget to tell others about this little secret, that through Jesus Christ, we are all Groundhog Slayers!
2 Corinthians 5:17 New International Version (NIV)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!
Galatians 2:20 New International Version (NIV)
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Romans 6 New International Version (NIV)
Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.