That THREE letter word called SIN!

“Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he did for me. 17 For I cried out to him for help, praising him as I spoke. 18 If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. 19 But God did listen! He paid attention to my prayer. 20 Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer or withdraw his unfailing love from me.” ~Psalm 66:16-20 NLT

SIN… unconfessed in the heart of every believer can keep God’s presence at bay in our lives! This is the reality that David writes about here in the 66th psalm.

Although this is not a popular concept today it is still as absolutely true today as it was on the day that David wrote these words. In our culture today we don’t like to talk about the challenges surrounding SIN both inside and especially outside the church.

However, the TRUTH is simply this… SIN is a reality and God cannot tolerate it!

SIN separates us from our Holy God and we must deal with the things that separate us IF we are going to be in the place where God can lead,guide, and direct our lives in the way that He so deeply desires.

So… how do we deal with any unconfessed SIN in our lives?

Well… we follow David’s lead… we PRAY! We pray and honestly ask God for His forgiveness. And then we need to take the next step and that is to REPENT and turn away from the SIN that separates us from God’s presence in our lives!

You see… we just can’t say… “God forgive me” and keep on doing the same old thing that originally brought about the separation in relationship between us and God and quite possibly each other. We need to repent… which means to simply TURN AWAY from the temptations that come our way that can cause us to move in opposition to God’s Will for our lives both individually and even corporately as a community of faith!

Now… here is the GOOD NEWS attached to all this SIN talk and that is this… when we CONFESS and REPENT… David tells us in verses 19 and 20 that God will listen and NOT ignore our prayers! He is faithful and just and willing to forgive and come close to us when we turn from the things that often challenge our relationship with Him. He is faithful and true to draw close to us and to set us back on the right path for our lives!

Thankful for His unfailing love and forgiveness tonight…

Rev Trev