We so easily forget that God sees all, knows all, and hears all. We think our sins are hidden from God just because they are hidden from others. It may be secret from friends and family, but there are no secrets kept from God. Oh how easily we deceive ourselves when in sin. Brings to mind the truth of Jeremiah’s words when he says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
When His Holy Spirit convicts us, we should come immediately and confess our sin, ask Him for forgiveness, and repent. But that’s not what usually happens, is it? What do we do? We wait until we get in trouble and then we display a worldly sorrow for getting caught. We try to defend and justify and excuse away our actions. Or we know our sin, but we ignore it, and stuff it down deep and wait until He has to take more severe action before we acknowledge our sin.
Be obedient to what He calls you to do and what He convicts you of. Your next step of obedience is not always someone else’s step of obedience; and your chastening may not look like someone else’s chastening. Be quick to go immediately to stop what God is calling your attention to.
We read in Hosea 14:1, “Take words with you, and return to the Lord.”
When we want to be in right relationship with the Lord and resolve conflict, we we are to take words of confession and repentance and ask for forgiveness as we trust in the Lord to help us walk in right relationship with Him.
This is the same idea that Paul expressed in Romans 10:8-10: “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
When we return to the Lord, taking words with us, we should come humbly, recognizing our sin, and our total dependence on the grace of God.
So what is God calling your attention to? And what does it take for Him to get your attention? And can you hear the alarm? God will speak to you in ways that are important and impactful to you.
One thing is sure: if you are a believer and you are sinning, God won’t let you stay comfortable. He does not want you to continue in your sin. So, if you’re not being convicted, let me ask, have you hardened your heart to the Lord? Are you in the fold of God? Are you one of His sheep?
John 10:27 tells us, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
If you’re following Him, you’re following His instruction. We are trained through our obedience. And we are trained by the discipline.
Hebrews 12:11 says, “For the moment, all discipline seems not to be pleasant, but painful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
I love that the verse ends with “the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” It is peaceful to restore a relationship and be right with the Lord. Because once we learn, then we can do right.
Even if no one knows our business, God does. Even if we never tell a soul what we did, God already saw it.
God wants us to submit to Him. He wants us to obey. He wants us to stay sensitive to His Holy Spirit conviction. So we should seek to be humble and confess our sin. And to remember those times of training the next time we are tempted to go back to our sin. We also need to give thanks to God for His redemption. That’s why we can yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness (as Heb. 12:11 says). It’s only because of His grace and mercy. So instead of arguing with God, or resenting His correction, we should respond like Hosea did in Hosea 6:1 as he led Israel in humble prayer.
Hosea 6:1, “Come, let’s return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.”
God corrects and gives us opportunities to repent and do better. Not because He has to, but because He is merciful.
And it doesn’t just affect us alone. Our choices affect everyone around us. When we backslide, others have to carry our load. Others have to pay the price. And as a believer on mission and in ministry, we can be sidelined for a time. Unable to do what we are called to do. Unable to be effective. Unable to reap blessings God has for us. If these things are important, wouldn’t we try harder to get it right and take sin seriously? Or are we just going to keep taking our discipline lightly and God’s grace for granted and continue fulfilling the desires of our flesh?
What will it take for us to learn to be loyal? What will it take for us to learn to be faithful? Why put God to the test? Why do we so quickly forget the discipline? Because it’s short-lasting? Because we got freedom back? And once we “get over” our sin and receive forgiveness and grace, we are so forgetful.
As Hosea 13:6 says, “They were filled and their heart was exalted; therefore they forgot Me.”
It is a strange and terrible aspect of human nature that when times are good, we often forget the God who blessed us. And when times are bad, we are often more likely to turn our hearts back to God.
Romans 6:1-2 tells us, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”
A life of sin is unacceptable because our death to sin changes our relationship to sin.
Our old self was crucified with Him (Rom. 6:6). That’s something that God did in us. We didn’t do that, because we can’t – it wasn’t possible for us to do that because we are sinners. Jesus did it, on the cross.
So if the old man is dead, why do we feel a pull to sin inside? It comes from the flesh. The flesh is a problem in the battle against sin because it has been expertly trained in sinful habits.
With the old man dead, what do we do with the flesh?
God calls us, in participation with Him, to actively do day by day with the flesh just what He has already done with the old man – to crucify it; make it dead to sin.
Galatians 5:24, “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
We should want to do this. We weren’t saved to live as we want, but to live as is pleasing to the Lord. Our “old man” is dead, and the “new man” lives (Ephesians 4:22-24). So we should not want to continue in sin, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, just so grace may abound! We should not be comfortable in our sin. And even though we may not sin all the time or in the same severity, there should be growth in changes that take place over time.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “God has so changed your nature by his grace that when you sin you shall be like a fish on dry land, you shall be out of your element, and long to get into a right state again. You cannot sin, for you love God. The sinner may drink sin down as the ox drinketh down water, but to you it shall be as the brine of the sea. You may become so foolish as to try the pleasures of the world, but they shall be no pleasures to you.”
That’s my prayer – that the Lord won’t give up on me. I pray He helps me to do better. Makes me better. Forms me and shapes me into the woman He wants me to be. I pray He takes away my desire to sin. Takes away my desire for “Egypt”. Takes away those things that pull me away from Him. I pray He draws me in close and hides me in the shelter of His wings (Psalm 17:8). And covers me with His feathers (Psalm 91:4). I pray He protects me from the enemy and doesn’t allow the enemy to have his way with me (2 Thess. 3:3). I pray the Lord renews my mind and transforms my thoughts (Rom. 12:1-2).
And friend, that is my prayer for you too! May we be filled with His truth, but also walk in that truth.