From Pastor Marvin Good morning and happy Tuesday to you! On yesterday, I gave you reflections for the 29th. Today, I will give you reflections that I should have given you yesterday. I got my days all mixed up. So, today is flip flop day. I just made that up to cover my error. : ) Isnt it interesting how we do this with our sin as well? Yet, this kind of thinking and behavior with our sin prevents us from experiencing Gods prosperity. But, I want to experience God’s spiritual prosperity and deep compassion in my life. Some days I forfeit those blessings because I can be stubborn and desire to conceal my sin. If you are anything like me, you desire to experience spiritual prosperity in your life as well, but find yourself being stubborn like me. We desire to avoid the suffering of spiritual and emotional torture that comes with concealing our sin, right? How can we experience spiritual prosperity and God’s compassion and avoid a life of spiritual and emotional torture? Proverbs 28:13, a proverb that is closest to the gospel, points us in the right direction. “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” The first line describes one who conceals or hides his sins. Proverbs counsels us to cover over the sins of others (Prov. 10:12; 17:9), but never our own. I think the pressure of social embarrassment coupled with stubborn pride often controls us and cause us to conceal our sins. The effect is disastrous: The person who hides his/her sin will not prosper. The word, prosper, means to achieve adequately what is planned. In this case, it means the total inability to succeed if we hide our sins. Not only do we not prosper, we can experience all kinds of emotional, psychological and even physical torture (Psalm 32:3-4) Line two of this proverb gives us our rescue plan. Thank God for line two. We are able to find God’s ‘compassion.’ We are able to experience God’s deep love in our lives and move into his favor through two acts. We must confess our sin. We must confess our spiritual revolt against God’s standards. We must say the same thing God says about our attitude and actions. To experience God’s mercy and spiritual prosperity, I must name myself as a rebel against a holy and righteous God. Whoa! General confessions will not do; I must be ruthlessly specific when naming my rebellion. I cannot protect or be afraid of bruising my ego. If we fail to name and confess our sin to God, and I would even say to one another (James 5:16), we will end up suffering in silence and not experiencing the kind of spiritual success that God desires. Confession is good, but it is not enough. We must forsake or turn away from our sin. This is not just a casual walking away. This is leaving, abandoning and losing our sin. We must be determined, by the grace of God, to walk away from our sin and have no further involvement with or in our particular sin. This process is called repentance. Repentance is not just feeling remorse for our sin; it is a complete turning of our backs on our sinful attitude and behavior. This can only be accomplished through the Holy Spirit. So, when we both confess and forsake our sins, God promises we will experience His compassion and spiritual prosperity. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to give us honest words about our sins and a courageous heart to walk away from them. What sins do you need to confess and forsake today? Have a great day!
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 12:17:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015