MEDITATIONS
FROM PROVERBS
June 13 , 2007
Reading: Proverbs 28:12-14
"Whoever confesses and forsakes (his sins)
will have mercy” Proverbs 28:13
Why is it that so many Christians do not enjoy being a Christian? So many put on a good face but in their everyday existence they are unhappy, unsatisfied and constantly long for relief from the stress of life. Our text today holds the answer to this question.
Let’s face it, all the time we walk on this earth our Christian life will be plagued by sins, some small, some big, some in thought and some in deed. Our enjoyment in the Christian life depends on how we handle these sins, whether we cover them up or confess and turn from them.
The Bible is clear; if we try to cover them up we will not prosper. How can we grow spiritually when we are walking around with unconfessed sin in our life? Sin will drag us down; it will create a barrier in our fellowship with God. Eventually it will wear us down until our prayer life becomes a ritual, our reading of the Bible becomes a chore and our fellowship with other Christians is something we would rather not be involved in.
Under the Old Testament sacrificial
system, man, in order for his relationship with God to be kept in tact, had to
have their sins atoned for every year. Their sins were covered by the blood of
bulls and every year the High Priest had to take that blood into the Holy of
Holies for the sole purpose of assuaging God’s anger against the sins of the
people. But now we have something better, we are the recipients of a better
covenant, “with better sacrifices than these” Hebrews
The problem is that we are still sadly influenced by sin and, if left unattended will cause great harm to us spiritually. Ah, you say, if my sins are forgiven, why should I have to worry about them? If you have trusted Christ as your Savior your sins will not suffer the wages of sin which is death, spiritual death, but “if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” 1 John 1:8. Once more, God has provided a way for this to not be a problem.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” 1 John 1:9.
The simple truth is this, if we try to cover up our sins by whatever means we employ, we are not fooling God even if we succeed in fooling ourselves and others. The only way to true peace of soul and mind is to confess our sins before God and forsake them. These two things must go together, for to keep confessing our sins without the effort to turn our backs on them, is a futile exercise and will always fail to bring about that peace and unobstructed fellowship with God.
The promise of scripture is that “whoever confesses them and forsakes them will have (or receive) mercy.” This is the promise of God. If we confess, God is willing to forgive. It is God before whom we confess and God who forgives, not priest or man.
David, in his prayer of repentance,
wrote “a broken and a contrite heart – these, O God, You will not despise” Psalm 51:17. David knew the mind of God in
these matters for he prayed “I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is
always before me” (3), and “Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities” (9).
The agonizing thing about sin in the heart of a true Believer is that He knows he has sinned before God. He has offended the holiness of the Almighty Sovereign.
“Against
You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your
sight” Psalm
51:4.
May the request of David always be on our lips, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (10).