Pulling Your Train Off the Tracks

One reason you need to make sure that you are confessing your sin is to avoid being steered.

The men and women’s groups at TEC are reading about emotional sabotage, about techniques in today’s world used by the immature and insecure to work to pull your train off the tracks. Maybe someone says something true about you but they make it sound ugly. Maybe they know it’s not true and say it anyway. They’re trying to pressure you to stop, change, do what they want.

For example, Nehemiah had fresh ink from Artaxerxes with permission to rebuild some walls, but that didn’t stop Sanballat and Tobiah from saying that Nehemiah was rebelling. He was exactly not rebelling, but the attempt was emotional sabotage to steer Nehemiah and the people of Jerusalem into the Ditch of Disheartenment.

Maybe you’re the one with both hands on the wheel, so to speak, one hand of derision and the other of drama. You don’t just grumble, you’ve got exasperated gestures and curse words to express your displeasure. You’re not making an argument to persuade the other person, you’re throwing a tantrum to get your way. Stop it.

But my main point here is, if you are carrying around sin, any sin, especially secret sin, you are already overloaded and unbalanced and easy for the tipping. You’ll either stand fearful in unconfessed sin or firm in faith, having confessed your sin and receiving God’s forgiveness and cleansing.