As sin is surely born in all of our hearts beloved. Our human nature is to sin. I do not say these things as a means to weigh the Spirit down or hammer people into shackles of guilt. I say them because the better prepared we are, the more likely it is that we can avoid some of the pitfalls the devil might throw at us or the sinful leanings of our fleshly nature. We will never defeat sin completely but we can certainly progress in our walk with God. I am sure David would like a mulligan (do-over) when it came to the census sin or the Bathsheba sin but we do not get those chances. The grace of God will cover our sins for all eternity but there is still a temporal price to be paid. If we spend all day focusing on the grace of God and ignore sin then the devil will have a field day with the children of God. We see it happening all around us. This is why people are so easily deceived in these last days. We need to learn these lessons but God gives us His Word so we can learn the easy way -- from applying the principles - so we do not have to learn the hard way as David did. Sin will always take you farther than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you intended to pay. How we react to it however can mean all the difference. Learning from David we start by confessing our sins openly to God for He sees them anyway! We refuse to play the blame game and take responsibility for our own actions. We need to understand that there are temporal consequences for our sinful actions.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. -- Galatians 6: 7-8 (NLT)
God not only wants us to confess our sins but He requires brokenness over them. If you want to see brokenness read the all of Psalm 51. David wrote it after the Bathsheba sin was exposed. The brokenness is pouring off the pages. That is what our sin should do to us. It should remind us of who we are and who God is. He is sovereign. He is our Lord. He is our Savior. I want everyone to walk under the grace of Almighty God and in the complete brokenness of who we are before Him. THAT is where the power of God will be found in our lives.
Reverend Anthony Wade -- January 11, 2013
