Have you ever heard someone use the expression, “connect the dots?” It usually refers to a person gaining or not gaining insight into the connection between behavior and consequences. Many people have a hard time connecting the dots. They don’t see the connection between the mess they’re currently in and the poor choices they’ve made in the past that put them in the mess. Connecting the dots requires introspection, humility, and insight. A prideful person who is unwilling to honestly look at the situation will never connect the dots.

The scripture has several examples of exhortations to connect the dots. Consider Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians. In explaining the seriousness of self-judgment before taking communion he declares, “For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 11:29-30). To paraphrase, Paul is saying, “Connect the dots! Don’t you get it? Some of you are weak, sick, and have died because you ate communion without first dealing with the sin in your lives.” An example of someone who connected the dots is the youngest son in Jesus’ parable of the lost son. After spending his inheritance from his father on “profligate living,” the son finds himself starving to death in the pigpen of a Gentile farmer. The misery awakens him to his condition and causes him to connect the dots. While standing in the ankle-deep mud and filth of the pigpen he comes to his senses and declares, “How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father” (Luke 15:17-20). He connected the dots between his sin against his father and the miserable conditions in which he was living.

Men and women who want to be free from sexual sin must connect the dots. If they do not, the Lord will continue to give them consequential opportunities to do so. He loves them so much that He will give them repeated opportunities to gain insight into why bad things have happened to them. Here’s a biblical principle: obedience to God and His will always leads to blessing; disobedience to God and His will always leads to curses.