How bad is your sin? No, no, not to God! We already know how bad our sin is before God. How bad is your sin to YOU?! Do you have categories of sin? Do you rank your sin from bad to worse? Do you compare your sins to other, consciously or subconsciously? Have you come to some sort of settlement with your sin after “extensive negotiations†with your conscience?
Did you know that it is only natural and normal to do so? That’s what makes it so wicked.
We can, even as born again believers—or especially because of it, where we trust our own wisdom and get to the point to where are that really matters in life is me.
We live our lives as though we are the deliverance we so desperately need. We have done this as a nation and we’re not the first one to do so:
-
“For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, ‘No one sees me’; your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; and you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’†(Isaiah 47:10)
We are comfortable with ourselves because too often we trust in false gods, namely us. We trust in our wisdom, we trust in our knowledge, we even trust in our sins in that we do not consider them to be as bad as others. In other words, we lie to ourselves:
-
“‘Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, “We are delivered to do all these abominations� Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,’ says the LORD.†(Jeremiah 7:8-11)
Even God has seen how we cover up our sins…imagine that?! The reason we do not recognize our sins the way we should is because, like so many things we’ve done in the American Church, we use the soft baby brush of the NTFV gospel (New Touchy Feeling Version Bible) instead of the solid wire brush of Holy Spirit truthful teaching and preaching. And it is this counterfeit Christianity that keeps us from the actual presence of God. Oswald Chambers explains:
-
When I get into the presence of God, I do not realize that I am a sinner in an indefinite sense; I realize the concentration of sin in a particular feature of my life. A man will say easily – ‘Oh, yes, I know I am a sinner’; but when he gets into the presence of God he cannot get off with that statement. The conviction is concentrated on – I am this, or that, or the other. This is always the sign that a man or woman is in the presence of God. There is never any vague sense of sin, but the concentration of sin in some personal particular. God begins by convicting us of the one thing fixed on in the mind that is prompted by His Spirit; if we will yield to His conviction on that point, He will lead us down to the great disposition of sin underneath. That is the way God always deals with us when we are consciously in His presence.
When Isaiah saw God he cried out, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips…†Would to God that more pastors across this country look upon their congregations as such, upon their own lives as such. Would to God that each of us would have a personal conviction of our sin so we can get to the root of the issues in our lives and our land.
Do you have specific sins that you’re okay with? Have to come to an agreement with your sin? How about let’s drop all pretense of sin and we concentrate on it specifically and consciously? Sin is hindering your relationship with God and without dealing with it, that relationship will remain broken. Jesus died to reconcile sinners to God for His Father’s glory. If it were not needed do you believe Christ would have died on the cross? That doesn’t pass the common sense test nor is it Biblical:
-
“I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.†(Galatians 2:21)
Stop setting aside the grace of God. Stop trusting in your own righteousness. Stop living your life that makes Christ’s death a vanity. Confess your sins to Jesus, repent of them now, and allow the Holy Spirit to cleanse you anew.
I would love to hear about your decision and so would your pastor. Please remember to go to church on Sunday and let us have a weekend glorifying of God and His graciousness to us.
In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4
If you’re receiving these devotionals for the first time and would like to receive them on a regular basis, please click here and use “Please add to Devotional List†as the subject.â€
-
Copyright © 2011 David Jeffers
Tags
Bible, Christianity, Culture, Faith, Forgiveness, Grace, Holy Spirit, Honesty, Mercy, Morality, Prayer, Revival, Sin