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These days God is
talking to us about sins. On of the things which can
hinder our prayers from being heard by God is sin as Bible says
in Isaiah 59 verses 1 and 2 that the hand of the Lord is not
short that he cannot save nor He is deaf that he cannot hear but
its our unrighteousness and sins that turns his face in such a
way that He cannot hear. Yes ! There are certain things
that GOD CANNOT DO - He cannot sin and He cannot tolerate sin.
Yet many times in
our lives, we keep some sins in our lives. I want to remind you
of one verse in the Bible:
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
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[Hebrews 13:8]
He saved Daniel from the hungry lion, so will He do it for us
today (save us from the roaring lion) because He has not
changed. He saved Daniel's friends (Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego) in the fire, He will do the same today from every
problem of life, because He has not changed. He guided Moses and
Abraham since He chose them so He will guide us in our ways too.
He fed and provided every need of Israelites (His chosen people)
while they wandered in wilderness for 40 years, so He will also
provide for us because He has not changed and He is the same
Jehovah Jireh still. This is all right and praise God for this.
But this verse
which we generally take as a promise - is also a warning for us.
This means that if He hated sin then, He hates it today also. If
he punished severely for sins, He should do it even today. The
only thing which saves us today is the grace and blood of Jesus
Christ which was paid as atonement of our sins. So should we
continue to sin? Should we take undue advantage of this grace?
NO! Yes, I can hear the resounding NO from you as well, but
don't we really sin even after knowing the true and the living
God!
Mostly we
confess our sins as we are convicted by the Holy Spirit everyday
as we spend time in fellowship with God meditating on His Word
and praying. I believe those sins are forgiven because Bible
promises that if we confess, He forgives, but what about those
sins which we keep doing without even noticing that they are
sins and we don't bother to confess. Those sins I am referring
as RESPECTED SINS. We keep them aside and don't want to think
about them or touch them.
For example,
speaking evil, negative and idle words from our mouth is a sin.
Even calling a brother fool is compared to the sin of murder and
yet at times, many born again God fearing believers don't
hesitate in using their tongue for boasting, cursing,
back-biting, complaining, using idle words in frustration etc.
James in 3rd chapter from verse 3 to 12, warns us that this same
tongue could take us in heaven or hell, we have to be cautious
of what we speak. If we speak negative words or curses, devil
uses those words to bind us and keep us in bondage but if we
speaking positive words and blessings, God uses those words of
faith to bless us. This is why Jesus said that He has given us
the KEYS that by which we can open and loose the things in
heaven - the key is our tongue.
There could be
many other sins that we have respected in our lives and kept
them hidden (not even bothering to think about them) and so
never confessed. My beloved in Christ, there is no one who will
see God without holiness (Hebrew 12:14) so ask the Holy Spirit
to bring out those hidden sins to you so that you may confess
and get rid of them.
Today what we
need to do is confess them, cancel their effects and speak out
blessing from now on and this is how we can live that abundant
life that Jesus promised for us. May God bless you.
** Read a book called 'Respectable Sins' from Jerry Bridges on
this subject.
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