I Keep Committing the Same Sin: Will God Still Forgive Me?

If it is drinking, drugs, gambling, or someone is being hurt

If the thing that keeps coming back is drinking or drugs, there is help you can reach tonight. In the United States, the SAMHSA National Helpline is on 1-800-662-4357, with a Spanish option, and FindTreatment.gov lists services near you. In the United Kingdom, the NHS addiction support page sets out the routes, alongside FRANK for drugs and Drinkaware for alcohol. In Australia, start with the Alcohol and Drug Foundation. In Spain, the Plan Nacional sobre Drogas has information and services in Spanish.

If it is gambling, the National Council on Problem Gambling runs the 1-800-GAMBLER helpline in the United States, and GamCare helps in the United Kingdom. Peer support meets in many countries: Alcoholics Anonymous (in Spanish at aa.org/es), Narcotics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous and Sex Addicts Anonymous.

If what keeps happening hurts a partner or a child, the first call is to a service for that: the National Domestic Violence Hotline in the United States, Refuge in the United Kingdom, or 1800RESPECT in Australia. God's mercy and getting that help belong together, and stopping the harm comes first. Bible verses for addiction recovery carries the Twelve Steps, the morning after a slip and more routes like these.

One call can be the first step back.

What happens if you keep committing the same sin, and does God forgive it?

Each of the main traditions answers in its own words, and none of them has to be ranked above the others to be of help. What they share matters more on a night like this than where they part.

In Catholic teaching, the Catechism defines contrition as "sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again" (1451). That resolution, the firm purpose of amendment, is treated as a present intention rather than a guarantee that a person will never fall again. You can mean it fully today and still be afraid of next week.

The Orthodox Church in America describes penance as allowing "the repentance and reconversion of Christians who have fallen away from the life of faith." John Climacus, in The Ladder of Divine Ascent, calls repentance "a contract with God for a second life" (Step 5) and describes those who fall as beginning the climb again. He wrote chiefly for monks, and the image of starting up the ladder once more is his.

Lutheran teaching describes the Christian as simul justus et peccator, "at the same time justified and sinner," and shapes each day as a return to confession, repentance and the promise made in baptism. In the Reformed tradition, Ligonier, drawing on the Westminster Confession, describes repentance as grief over sin, hatred of it and turning to God, continuing through the whole Christian life. Wesleyan and Methodist churches use the word "backsliding" for falling away after faith, and their teaching holds out a return.

Evangelicals often speak of a "besetting sin," a phrase taken from the wording of Hebrews 12:1 in older English translations. The setting there is a race, run with endurance, with eyes fixed on Jesus rather than on the stumble. In Jewish teaching, Maimonides, in the Laws of Repentance, describes teshuvah, which means return, as leaving the sin, regretting it, confessing it and resolving not to repeat it.

Read in a row, they describe the same person: someone who falls again and turns back again. Each of them keeps a way back open for that person.

Why do I keep repeating the same sin, and why is this one so hard to leave?

The one that keeps coming back is usually the one that has become a habit, and sometimes the one that has become a compulsion. Health organizations have their own words for the far end of that, and they are offered here as information rather than as a test.

The American Society of Addiction Medicine says, "Addiction is a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences," in which substance use or behaviors "become compulsive and often continue despite harmful consequences." SAMHSA describes drug addiction as "a chronic disease where people compulsively seek and use drugs despite harmful consequences."

The National Institute on Drug Abuse, in its 2018 guide, compares relapse in substance use disorders, at roughly 40 to 60 percent, with relapse in other chronic illnesses. That figure describes many people, not you. The World Health Organization lists gambling disorder and gaming disorder in its ICD-11 classification among disorders due to addictive behaviors, and classifies compulsive sexual behavior disorder as an impulse-control disorder.

Catholic moral teaching makes room for the same reality. The Catechism names "ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other psychological or social factors" as things that can diminish responsibility (1735), and, in its teaching on chastity, lists "force of acquired habit" among the factors that "lessen or even extenuate moral culpability" (2352).

These describe health conditions that have treatment, and a doctor is the person to ask whether one fits. Not every repeated wrong is an addiction, and you do not have to settle that question alone tonight.

How many times can I repent for the same sin, and is my repentance real?

Somebody else has asked it in nearly your words. In a Desiring God interview published on May 7, 2021, a listener named only as Doug in Ohio asked, "If my repentance is genuine, why do I keep confessing the same sin?" and wrote, "This question plagues me to such a degree that I am sometimes seized with depression when I think of it." John Piper's answer separates a person who keeps confessing a sin that recurs from a person who has made peace with it.

A caller to Ligonier's Ask Ligonier podcast in August 2021 described the same thing: "perhaps even years will go by, and I’ll find myself falling into the same sin."

Two Gospel passages come up again and again here. In Matthew 18:21-22, Peter asks Jesus how often he must forgive a brother who sins against him, offering seven times, and is given an answer far beyond his count. Luke 17:3-4 sets a similar saying inside teaching on correcting and forgiving one another. Commentators differ on whether these describe how people forgive one another, the shape of God's own mercy, or both; Enduring Word on Matthew 18 is one place to read them. In both, the counting is Peter's, and the answer is larger.

On what true repentance is, the traditions sit close together. The Catechism speaks of sorrow and resolution, Ligonier of a turning and a lifelong practice, Maimonides of leaving the sin, regret and confession, and the Orthodox Church in America of return and healing. In Spanish, the Catholic words are la contrición and el propósito de enmienda.

In each of these, repentance is something a person can do again, today. Coming back the fortieth time is still coming back.

Psalm 103, for the morning after

The passage Bible Nudge offers for guilt and regret is Psalm 103:8-12. Psalm 103 is a psalm of praise recalling God's character, and these verses describe mercy, anger that does not last, and transgressions carried as far away as east is from west. In the World English Bible, with the two verses that follow:

8 Yahweh is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness. 9 He will not always accuse; neither will he stay angry forever. 10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us for our iniquities. 11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. 13 Like a father has compassion on his children, so Yahweh has compassion on those who fear him. 14 For he knows how we are made. He remembers that we are dust.

In the King James Version, verses 8 to 12:

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

The Hebrew behind verse 8, shown in the Bible Hub interlinear, has four words worth knowing. Rachum, "merciful," carries tender compassion. Channun, "gracious," means favor. Erek appayim, "slow to anger," is literally long of nostrils: patience before anger comes. Chesed, "loving kindness," is steadfast covenant loyalty. Jewish readers place the psalm in praise of God's covenant mercy, and Sefaria has the Hebrew text.

What it gives you is a description of God's character that sets no count, read on a morning when you are counting. These are words about what God is said to have done, and they sit alongside confession and making amends rather than in place of them. Verse 14 adds a line many people need after a fall: he knows how we are made.

Read Psalm 103:8-12 with the verses around it once, slowly, and hold one question: "What are you still holding that this says has already been carried away?" Bible verses for guilt and shame reads these verses closely, and Bible verses for forgiving yourself is for the reader who has confessed and still cannot set it down.

The first hour of the next day.

People in the Bible who fell and got up again

Paul writes in Romans 7:14-25 of doing the very thing he does not want to do, and of the good he wants and does not do. Bible verses for addiction recovery reads verses 15 to 20 with John Calvin and Adam Clarke. The rest is worth having too. The Greek word behind "wretched" in verse 24, talaiporos, means miserable or distressed, and Paul's cry is followed at once by thanks, with Romans 8:1-2 close behind.

Readers take Paul's "I" in different ways: as a believer still struggling, as a person before faith or under conviction, or as both. Lutheran readers hear simul justus et peccator in it. Matthew Henry and Enduring Word give two readings, and both leave Paul in the company of people who keep falling.

Nehemiah 9:16-31 is a prayer that recounts a whole people's pattern: turning away, distress, crying out, being rescued, and turning away again, with God answering each time. Sefaria has the chapter. It is the history of a nation rather than a promise about one person, and read late at night it is company: the Bible kept a record of a people who did it again and again.

Lamentations 3 is a lament that moves from affliction toward mercies that, in the poet's words, "are new every morning," and a reader who wants the turn in full can find it at Lamentations 3:19-24. Psalm 130 is a prayer from the depths that waits for the Lord the way a night watchman waits for morning.

In Luke 15:1-10, Jesus tells two stories while tax collectors and sinners gather to listen and some Pharisees complain about the company he keeps. A shepherd leaves the flock to search for one lost sheep, and a woman sweeps the house until she finds one lost coin, and both stories end in joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.

Together these give you a long line of people in the Bible who fell more than once, and whose falling and turning back the Bible thought worth keeping.

Can a believer lose salvation by sinning the same sin again?

This question deserves a calm answer, and two other posts carry it at length: have I committed the unforgivable sin and how do I know if I am truly saved.

The passages people send are Hebrews 10:26-31 and 2 Peter 2:20-22. Hebrews is written to a community under pressure, warning against abandoning the faith it had confessed, and 2 Peter uses severe images for people who return to corruption after escaping it. The Greek word behind "willfully" in Hebrews 10:26, hekousios, means voluntary or deliberate; Enduring Word on Hebrews 10 walks through the passage.

Traditions read these warnings differently, and none needs ranking. Some Reformed readers connect the warning with settled apostasy rather than repeated failure that grieves, and hold that those truly united to Christ will not finally fall away. Wesleyan readers hold that a believer can fall from grace by deliberate abandonment and can return. Free Will Baptist teaching holds that a saved person can fall away through persistent unbelief. Catholic readers place the warnings among grave sin, apostasy and a final refusal of mercy.

Your own church can tell you how it reads these. If you are reading this at night, grieved by what you did, you are the kind of person every one of these traditions calls to come back.

How do I stop committing the same sin over and over, and what do I do after I fall?

Each tradition offers a way back in its own terms. Catholic churches offer confession, and the USCCB describes the sacrament of penance, with frequent confession of everyday faults recommended. In Orthodox churches, a spiritual father hears confession and offers a prayer of absolution, through which, the OCA says, "the forgiveness of God through Christ is sacramentally bestowed upon the repentant sinner."

Lutheran churches offer private confession. The Book of Common Prayer's Reconciliation of a Penitent has the penitent confess, receive counsel and receive absolution from a priest. Evangelical and Pentecostal churches turn to prayer, accountability and a pastor.

If you are Catholic and dread bringing the same sin to the same priest again, confessing everyday faults again and again is exactly what the Catechism recommends. One idea of ours: say the shame out loud in the confessional too, as plainly as "I am embarrassed to be back with this again."

Then there is telling one person. Celebrate Recovery describes small groups and accountability, with principles adapted from the Twelve Steps. Alcoholics Anonymous describes a problem that willpower alone does not solve, and is built around admitting it and asking for help.

As for who to talk to, a priest or pastor is the person for confession, prayer and what the text means. A doctor or therapist is the person for an assessment when the behavior feels out of control or continues despite harm, through FindTreatment.gov in the United States or the NHS in the United Kingdom, where a first appointment is for talking it through and deciding what support fits. The American Association of Christian Counselors is one route to a Christian counselor, and qualifications vary by country.

A small change to the place can matter.

One small thing for the morning after, in our own words: name what happened to one person who can hear it, and name one change to the place or the hour where it usually happens. A phone left in another room, a different route home, a friend who knows to call at ten.

Lines that land hard, and better ones

People in the cycle are told things like "If you were truly sorry you would stop," "God's patience has limits," "God is not mocked," "Just choose differently," "Just pray harder," "You keep sinning, so you were never saved," or "Stop thinking about it." Some are sent Hebrews 10:26 or 2 Peter 2:22 with no other words. These land badly because they treat repetition as proof about sincerity, treat a health condition with impaired control as a simple choice, or send a warning written to a whole community under pressure to one frightened person, alone.

The other direction can hurt too. "Seventy times seven" offered as a reason to carry on without help leaves out the correcting and repenting that Luke 17 sets around it, and "God has forgiven it already" said to somebody whose behavior is hurting another person skips the person being hurt.

Some lines of our own, for each of those moments: "You came back again. That is what repentance looks like, and I am glad you told me." "Can we find you one person to call, a priest, a group or a doctor, this week?" "Whatever happens next, I am staying." And where somebody is being hurt: "I love you, and the hurting has to stop first. Let us call someone today."

If you are the husband, wife, parent or friend of somebody in the cycle, one idea of ours is to send a message with a time in it rather than a verse: "I will call you at eight tonight." If you recognize a line above as one you have said, the better one is still there to say tomorrow.

Questions people ask

These come up often, and each answer adds something the sections above leave for later.

Does true repentance mean never asking forgiveness for the same sin twice?

The Desiring God interview asks nearly this question, and Piper's answer turns on whether a person is still fighting the sin or has settled into it. On the Ask Ligonier podcast, repeated sin is not treated as automatic evidence that a person is not a Christian, while repetition with repentance is set apart from ongoing practice without it.

Is my sorrow good enough if it is partly fear?

The Catechism distinguishes perfect contrition from imperfect contrition and calls imperfect contrition "also a gift of God." Sorrow mixed with fear of the consequences still counts as a beginning in Catholic teaching.

How do I know if a habit has become a disorder?

For gaming disorder, the World Health Organization describes impaired control, an increasing priority given to the behavior, and continuing or escalating despite negative consequences, with significant impairment normally evident for at least 12 months. Only a doctor or qualified clinician can assess this for you, and asking is an ordinary first step.

Where to go next

If a night like this turns into thoughts of ending your life, reach a person tonight. In the United States, call 988 or text 988, or chat with the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, with help in Spanish at 988lifeline.org/es. In Canada, call or text 9-8-8. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Samaritans is on 116 123. In Australia, Lifeline is on 13 11 14.

In Spain, call the 024 line. In Mexico, Línea de la Vida is there, and in Argentina, the Centro de Asistencia al Suicida. Anywhere else, Find A Helpline lists services by country.

For drinking and drugs in the United States, the SAMHSA National Helpline is on 1-800-662-4357, day or night.

Tomorrow morning, tell one person what happened, a priest, a pastor, a sponsor, a doctor or a friend, and read Psalm 103:8-14 once.

Bible Nudge offers one passage with the verses around it. Find a passage.