Lord, Teach Us To Pray! Part 198

Prayers of the Old Testament
The Prayer of David continued...

There is no point in attempting to excuse sin in our lives, or to mitigate our responsibility and participation. God knows, and the only thing which compels Him to forgive the iniquity of our sins is to come before Him in humility, confess, and repent.

As children of God we should have an aversion to sin.

Some years ago I was sitting in a breakfast diner minding my own and enjoying an omelet, when two tables away from me someone started coughing loudly, and banging the table. I lifted my head and saw a middle aged couple, with breakfasts of their own in front of them, and what I assumed was the husband, was the one making the ruckus.

In no time the man started wheezing violently, his face turned bright red, and his female companion became distraught herself and stared screaming for someone to call an ambulance.

The man was still clinging to the table, barely breathing by the time the ambulance came, and in a distraught voice the woman informed the emergency medical technician of the severe peanut allergy the man suffered from.

The man almost died because he accidentally ingested something he was allergic to. We must view sin in much the same terms. Sin is not something God winks at, sweeps under the rug, or ignores in our lives. Sin kills. Sin is as deadly for a believer, as the crushed peanuts were in the batter of the waffle the man was eating before he had his attack.

When we minimize the destructive power of sin, we tend to flirt with it more than we ought. When we acknowledge how devastating it is for both individuals, families and communities alike, we stay away from it, and do our utmost to avoid it.

In his instruction for holy living to the church of Thessalonica, Paul simply says, ‘abstain from every form of evil.’

Simple, direct, and unequivocal! Paul doesn’t qualify his statement by saying some forms of evil are more acceptable than others, he does not say we should abstain on from certain kinds of evil, but from every form of evil.

Yes, we must abstain from every form of evil. To abstain is to restrain oneself from doing or enjoying something. It is making the conscious decision to say ‘no,’ when saying ‘yes,’ would be momentarily more pleasurable to the flesh.

A fleeting pleasure hides lifelong consequences. We see this reality play out time and again with every generation, yet rather than learn from the mistakes of those who came before them, every generation seems to be quickening its pace toward the edge of the precipice.

David’s sin did no go unpunished. Even though he confessed his transgression before God, there was still a price to be paid for the sin he committed. Though God may forgive the sinful act, He cannot do away with the direct result and consequences of our sin.

Another reason why some find the confessing of their sins to be a difficult matter is because when we stand before God and confess our transgressions, we must confess them in their entirety. We must tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We cannot romanticize the transgression, and we cannot lessen our responsibility in the matter. We must be wholly honest and forthright with God, because He already knows the truth of it all.

We may be able to hide sin from men, but never from God. Even those who successfully hide their sins from others for a season are eventually found out, and this has happened on more than one occasion even within the church. David did not attempt to hide his sin from the Lord, or justify his sin before the Lord. He confessed, repented, and God honored his repentance.

Hebrews 4:13, “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”

If everyone who calls themselves a son or daughter of God would quote this verse upon waking, and upon going to sleep each night, there would be allot less sin within the house of God then there is presently.

The facts are grim. Seemingly, we are competing with the world in divorce rates, out of wedlock births, adultery, fornication, and every other thing God calls sin. It is because the truth of the aforementioned passage has not taken root in our hearts, and we view it only as theoretical rather than the absolute truth it is.

‘All things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to who we must give account.’

Not only does God see all we do, we must give account for all we do. God is not playing games, even though we’ve been told He is. God does not make concessions nor does He negate His own justice. This is why Jesus had to die. This is why the Son of God had to hang on a cross, and expire before the mocking eyes of those of His time, because God cannot negate his own justice.

We were all guilty, fated to be eternally separated from God, until Jesus came and bought us. He redeemed us and reconciled us unto the Father, not so we might continue in sin, but that we might be born again to eternal life in Him.

Luke 12:2-3, “For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.”

These were not the words of any ordinary man, but the words of Christ Jesus. No matter how well men might attempt to cover something, there is nothing covered that will not be revealed. No matter how well men might attempt to hide something, there is nothing hidden that will not be known.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.