A Soul Given Up to Sin

It is the greatest judgment in the world to be left to sin. O unhappy man when God leaves you to yourself and does not resist you in your sins! Woe, woe to him at whose sins God winks. When God lets the way to hell be a smooth and pleasant way that is hell on this side of hell and a dreadful sign of God's indignation against a man; a token of his rejection and that God does not intend good unto him.

That is a sad word, "Ephraim is joined to idols...let him alone!" (Hosea 4:17) Ephraim will be unteachable and incorrigible; he has made a match with sin and he shall have his bellyful of it! And that is a terrible saying, "So I gave them up unto their own heart’s lusts, and they walked in their own counsels." (Psalm 81:12) A soul given up to sin is a soul ripe for hell, a soul hastening to destruction!

Ah LORD! Mercy I humbly beg that whatever You give me up to, You will not give me up to the ways of my own heart! If You will give me up to be afflicted or tempted or reproached, I will patiently sit down and say: ‘It is the LORD, let Him do with me what seems good in His own eyes.’ Do anything with me and lay what burden You will upon me but do not give me up to the ways of my own heart!