Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life.

In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. Sometimes we assume that the Christian life

should always be up into the right. We should always be growing in holiness, always growing in our

love for God, always maturing, always getting

better. But I've started to wonder if that's a biblical expectation. When we look at the lives of

characters in the Bible, do we always see them improving? And if they're not always improving,

should we assume that they weren't really following God to begin with? I ask because I think the ordinary Christian life really feels like it's progressing in a

single direction.

If you're anything like me, you often feel stuck.

You often feel like your sin struggles aren't really dealt with.

They go unchanged.

In fact, old theologians had a word for this.

They called them besetting sins. The idea was that

sometimes there are some idols, some sins that are rooted so deep in our heart that they never

seem to go away, where they take years or decades to defeat. And then, even after years of defeat,

sometimes they come back with a vengeance.

I don't really follow celebrities, but a friend of mine told me that Justin Bieber has been going through a hard time, and he sent me this Instagram post that Justin posted, and I thought

it was pretty interesting. This is what he said. People keep telling me to heal. Don't you think

if I could have fixed myself, I would have already?

I know I'm broken. I know I have anger issues. I tried to do the work my whole life, like the people

who told me I needed to be fixed, just like them. And it just keeps making me more tired and more angry.

The harder I try to grow, the more focused I am on myself.

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