Psalm 51:3-6
Verse 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
We mentioned yesterday David knew his sin and could therefore repent of it. Sin is something which we are all familiar with. As much as we may try to convince ourselves we didn’t know what we were doing was a sin, we are only lying to ourselves. David knew that too and went so far as saying the Lord had told him while he was still unborn what sin was. This may seem strange to us as we know babies are not born with great knowledge, so what was David getting at?
Though we don’t want to readily admit it God has created each of us with an underlying understanding of what He wants from us. We sometimes call this our conscience; that inner voice or feeling which gently reminds us of what is right and wrong. There isn’t a sin in our lives which hasn’t passed through the thought process of our beings.
Each action and word have a beginning for which we are responsible. As soon as a thought enters our mind we have the decision to act upon it or condemn it, pushing it out of our minds. Each sinful thought which we entertain has a greater chance of being acted upon. The more we think about eating that tenth cookie the more we rationalize it and the sweeter the thought becomes. But it doesn’t end there. The more we entertain the thought and act upon it, the easier it becomes to fall into that same sin or one like it the next time.
We each have areas which are harder for us to push against the sin and that is why it is important to label those things as sins in our minds so we don’t allow them to become something we see as being harmless in our lives and more importantly our relationship with the Father. When we start viewing our sins as less dangerous to our spiritual lives, we will stop seeing God as important.
We need to realize as David did how our sins are against God and God alone. Oh, they may affect those around us and others may feel the pain of our decisions but when we sin it is against God because He made the standard of holiness. His desire is for His people to reflect Him and when we are not addressing the sins in our lives, we are saying we desire them more than we do a loving relationship with the One who loved us so much He sent His Son to die in our place.
Making It Personal
How long do you entertain sinful thoughts? Does acting on them give you pleasure or regret? How can you grow in your hate of sin?
Making It Personal Kids
Do you know what is right and wrong or do you need someone to tell you every time? Why does Jesus want you to know when something is a sin? Do you want to love Jesus or your sin more?
Closing Prayer
Father, You have placed the knowledge of good and evil in our hearts and yet so often we choose what is evil. Give us hearts which hate what You hate and help us be more aware of sin before we act upon our sinful thoughts. In Jesus’ name, amen.