Playing tennis in the wind can be taxing. I played on the tennis team during High School and we practiced outside every afternoon in the Spring. Oklahoma is a windy place, especially in the Spring time. As much as I was playing tennis, I would have played tennis a lot more were it not for the wind. As the wind came sweeping down the plain, tennis lost a bit of its luster for me. Serving from one side you could boom the ball and, at best, get a mediocre serve in the court. From the other side it was nearly impossible to keep the ball from screaming beyond the line. If you could learn the art of using the wind in your favor you had a huge advantage. But no matter how skilled we were playing in the wind, the fun dissipated as the wind the energy drained out of us. Sadly, I stopped playing for years after high school because the grit and grind of practicing everyday in that wind was too much. The game I once loved, I didn’t even want to play.

In a way, the wind of Oklahoma is like sin. It creates a disdain for doing what we might otherwise delight in. God created us to delight in Him but most of us don’t. We look at God as a grumpy old grandfather waiting to squelch all of our fun. Maybe it’s not conscious, but that perspective is common. How else can you explain the little time we spend seeking after God? The trouble is, it isn’t following God that is the struggle, but following God while sin clings to us. Just like the wind turned me away from having joy in tennis, sin turns us away from having joy in God.

The passage before us shows us God’s solution to this dilemma.  That thing which turns us away from enjoyment in God is taken away. If you’ve been in the church then you’ve probably heard that before – Jesus takes away the sin of the world. But we often fail to see what naturally follows. If Jesus has indeed taken away our sin, then there is joy in following Him. Our view of God Himself changes from grumpy grandfather to Loving Lord.

Because Jesus takes away our sin, we must follow Him.

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