God warns us against sin all throughout Scripture. That’s why He’s laid out a path for us to avoid the suffering and inevitable consequences that come with disobedience. When we choose to do it His way, we should also be on the lookout to invite anyone who’s willing to jump in with us and follow Him.

The difficulties we face are often symptoms of a root problem: sin. And while we can easily make the mistake of focusing on the symptoms, nothing will change in our circumstances until we deal with the problem. God gives us tools through Scripture to help us address our sin, and it’s our responsibility to put those tools in our spiritual toolbox so that we can grow and mature in our walk with Him.

Take a good look at your life. Is there an area where you’re experiencing escalating consequences, and if so, have you asked yourself why that might be the case? In the same way that parents discipline their children, God disciplines us when we make poor choices. There are consequences to our actions, but God gives us those consequences because He wants us to learn, grow, and move forward.

Your worst day with God will always be better than your best day without Him. Living in obedience to Him — even when it involves suffering — is better than living for ourselves knowing it’ll only end in pain. God rewards our faithfulness with a fullness of joy that can’t be found anywhere else, and it’s contagious to the people around us.

We all start off “over our heads” buried in sin. But God made a way through Jesus Christ to take it from us, while still leaving some of the residual consequences for us to learn from our mistakes. The more we dive headfirst into Scripture — and apply the things we read on a daily basis — the more God’s Spirit works within us and changes us for His glory.

God gives us plenty of warning signs on the road to disobedience. Through Scripture, the Holy Spirit, and fellow believers, He urges us to heed those warnings — not only to avoid the painful consequences of sin, but to avoid the ultimate consequence of hell itself.

When you take “the high road”, it’s usually far less crowded. That’s because it’s not easy to admit fault and ask for forgiveness — but when we offend someone else, that’s exactly what we need to do. If we choose to follow Christ, God’s grace abounds when we confess our sins to Him with a repentant heart. But if we continue to deliberately sin, we have to be prepared to face the lasting consequences of our choices.

Have you ever been so impatient for something that you just couldn’t wait? We’d rather fall into sin to satisfy our fleeting impulses than wait on God to come through for us. And even though He’s gracious to forgive us and welcome us back when we repent, the consequences are often painful and could have been avoided. When we live in obedience and walk with Him, our hearts can’t help but worship and dance in the joy of His presence.

Every action we take comes with a subsequent reaction; just read Samson’s story in Scripture. The Bible warns us to flee from temptation, but, like Samson, we’re susceptible to giving in. Even in those moments of consequence when we sin, God gives us strength if only we ask, so that we can pick ourselves up, move forward, and continue in His work.

Thanks to Christ’s death on the cross, we’re spoiled rotten in the sense that we no longer have to make a sacrifice to atone for our sin. But often, we take that gift for granted, instead of recognizing the need for us to repent. When we do so genuinely and wholeheartedly, God is gracious to make us clean. There will still be consequences for our disobedience, but they’re given not out of punishment, but out of His love for us.

Sin doesn’t occur in a vacuum — and neither does pain. Sometimes we experience pain through no fault of our own, and other times we inflict it on ourselves through our sin. But during our greatest trials, God offers us the “spiritual anesthesia” of grace, and invites us to find relief and comfort through His peace.