6/10/2021
How do we ask for forgiveness, or do we remember to do so at all? Do we think that God’s promise to forgive us makes facing our transgressions trivial, and that asking Him to forgive us has become a non-event? No, asking for forgiveness is not trivial, and it will destroy our relationship with the Lord if we are not careful about this part of our faith, and worship. God will certainly forgive us, but we must confess our sins with a contrite heart, being remorseful, and sincerely desiring to go and sin no more.
“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 ESV
When we neglect to ask for forgiveness then how can we come before God, and ask Him to heal us, or bless us in any way? How will we be received if we are covered with the filth of our worldliness? We might think that He forgives without our asking, but our spirit feels the burden of our sin, and it withers within us… made sick by the accumulation and weight of our unholiness. When our eyes are finally opened to why we feel so depressed, drink to addiction, or our heart cries out to the Lord for help, we find the root of our suffering to be the sin that we have not faced, and asked God to forgive. We carry our failures like many knives that have pierced us through. Listen to David as he describes this in himself…
“Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.”
Psalm 32:2-3 ESV
Paul speaks about a very similar situation in his letter to the Ephesians as he writes to them regarding sin and anger. He tells them not to let the sun go down on their anger. Today let’s honestly ask ourselves how many times we have let the sun go down on sin that we have not repented for, and asked our Father to forgive. Let’s ask ourselves if we asked Him to help us to resist them in the future as we face them as temptations?
“Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.”
Ephesians 4:26-27 ESV
Unaddressed Covetousness becomes thievery, which becomes robbery, and finally opens the way to murder. We see such things as this on the morning, and evening, news every day. Lives ruined, and souls lost, after a life of escalating crime and violence that finally ends in death. Paul tells us that anger (and sin) that goes without being addressed properly opens the door into our hearts, and lives, to Satan, but it goes deeper than this because it drives a wedge of separation between us and the presence of God.
“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus,”
Acts 3:19-20 ESV
So today, before we begin our prayers in earnest, let’s humble ourselves before God and ask him for forgiveness of our sins, but let’s not trivialize them by lumping them together and asking for forgiveness of them as if they were a hand full of nondescript sand, but by remembering each sin we have committed as if it were a thorn that must be carefully pulled from our flesh. Then, when we have exhausted our memory of them, let’s ask our Father who is in heaven to forgive all those sins we may have forgotten, but may have committed knowingly, unknowingly, and by omission. In this way we can come before Him with a pure heart, made clean by the blood of Jesus, and we can draw near to Him for a time of righteous conversation. Are we ready to come into the presence of God, and to relieve ourselves of the pressing burden of our sins?
“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”
Romans 6:12-14 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus, and the grace that flows from Him. Thank you Father for the forgiveness He has made possible for us, and for your Holy Spirit who opens our eyes to the sin burden we carry about within us. We ask that you forgive us today as we humble ourselves before you and in tearful contrition confess them to you. We ask that you relieve our spirits of their rotting scent, and weight. Help us Holy Father to see our sins for what they are; each being a wedge that has driven itself between us, and keeps us from approaching you as we should. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who is sin free, good, loving, and whose Son Jesus is our example of a life without sin. Perfect are you who detests sin, and will not tolerate it. Absolute is your merciful forgiveness for all our sin that is confessed in remorse and contrition. Praised be your name for choosing not to remember it, and separating it from us as far as the East is from the West. Wonderful is your Holy Spirit who convicts us in our sins, and who helps us to go and sin no more. Wash us Lord in the blood of your Son Jesus who has offered himself as our sin offering that we might come before you made worthy in Him. On our day of judgement as we will fall prostrate before you, Jesus will lift us up, and will cover us in His righteousness… in that moment we pray you will see His reflection in us, and welcome us into your presence for all eternity.
“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”
Proverbs 28:13 ESV
Rich Forbes