In her book, Speak Truth in Your Heart, my dear sister-in-Christ Sarah (Mally) Hancock told a story about finding a cockroach in their house one day. After catching the quick rascal, her dad looked it up to make sure it was a cockroach. Sarah drew a few lessons from the cockroach about sin.

I laughed at this illustration.

Being brought up in Florida, I knew different species of cockroaches. Moving to Alabama, we had to adjust to not squashing every palmetto bug we saw on the porch.

There was a time in my childhood when I could wake up every night around midnight and look at a certain place on the wall to see a roach perching there. Every time.

And each time I got my daddy to come slay the “dragon” so I could go back to bed in peace. He became quite the pro at it.

I’m not laughing anymore.

Sin is like a roach. For some, it is like that reappearing roach. It feels like an ever-present trouble. We can sit up in the night and know, it’s here. Even the apostle Paul said, “When I want to do good, evil is right there with me” (Romans 7:21).  Jesus warned us, “The spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Matthew 26:41). Fighting sin is a real struggle.

“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Corinthians 15:57) We can always run to Jesus to conquer sin.

We don’t have to give in to sin or wallow in our past unfaithfulness. The Accuser would have us believe that God’s forgiveness reaches a limit, that at some point we’ve just sinned too much.

I believed this lie for one long year. After giving my life to Christ at a young age and walking in the light for years, one short season seemed to have severed my relationship with Him. This led to a chain of lies that I began to believe as I tried to restore the relationship without resting on God’s forgiveness. I was failing, however, and it felt like a point of no return.

Not true!

1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sin, He (Jesus) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

This promise never fails because it rests on God’s unchanging character!

When I allowed Scripture to determine God’s character and not the fears haunting me, my whole life changed. My relationship with God was restored to a place beyond what we’d had before. I know Him more now than I ever did! I now rest in this unchanging promise of God’s forgiveness. When the Accuser plagues me with guilt and fear of condemnation, I shout back the truth.

If there is any sin buried inside of you, plaguing you with guilt, shame, or fear, confess it. Then, rest in God’s forgiveness. That means, you choose to believe God has forgiven you, as Scripture declares He will, and stand firm in it.

When the Accuser whispers of your sin, shout back! “I am forgiven in the Lord, Jesus Christ, because He is faithful and just!”

When the Accuser fills your mind with shame and fear, take the Sword of the Spirit from the Belt of Truth and attack him! “If any of us does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father on our behalf – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One!” (1 John 2:1)

There are two interesting facts about cockroaches:

1. When you stomp a roach hard enough, it is crushed.
   (It also makes a disgusting crunch, but try to ignore that. No one ever said battle was pretty.)
   “Stand firm, then with the belt of truth around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests” (Ephesians 6:14-18a).
   
   
2. When you shine light on a roach, it flees.
   Jesus said that “men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil,” “but whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God” (John 3:19b & 21).
   So, “live as children of light (for the fruit of light consists of all goodness, righteousness, and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord” (Ephesians 5:9-10).

Dear friend, I was one who struggled with sin and felt burdened by it years after my salvation. I was listening to the voice of the Accuser, but not my Savior, so when I confessed and cried out for forgiveness, I missed God’s promise.

But, Jesus graciously opened my eyes and my heart to hear His truth! I am laughing again. Just as I could always run and get my daddy to kill the “dragon,” I can always run to God to kill the sin in me so that I can live for Him. 

May you find such victory in Jesus as you confess and rest in God’s miraculous forgiveness.