Have you ever gone wading and had a stone get in your shoe? Or gone hiking and got a stone in your hiking boot? I had that experience while fishing in the Susquehanna river here in Pennsylvania while going out for bass. That becomes the norm when you don't have a boat and you get use to it. I was out wading early one day and wasn't out in the water very long before I got a stone in my boot. Instead of sitting down on a rock and getting the stone out, I kept moving my foot around to try to get the stone in a place that didn't bother me when I walked. But as most of us know, that doesn't work for very long especially when you get more stones in the boot. Finally I gave up and sat down and took off the boots and removed the stones. They weren't big at all but just small ones. The little ones were the worst because they could get in any place. Once I had them out and my boots back on, I got back to fishing. I said fishing because I wasn't catching anything that day.
As I was going along trying the different spots I thought might hold some fish, I felt the Holy Spirit talking to me about the stones. I began to realize that most people deal with sin in their lives much the same way. They try to ignore the "stone" or sin and try to lessen its impact but never do what they should do about it. The right thing to do is to get it out of their life by asking God to forgive them and accepting His forgiveness. The Holy Spirit is the one who draws our attention to the sin so that He can help us to deal with it the right way. He doesn't make us aware of the sin so we can figure a way to make it more bearable in our lives. No! He wants to get rid of it just the like the stones in my wading boots. So when you are confronted with a sin in your life, don't letit stick around but take a seat on the rock of God's grace and let Him get rid of that "stone".