Do you find yourself compartmentalizing your walk with Christ? Are there doors that you would prefer He didn’t walk through? Secret places you keep boarded up? I have done this in the past. I have found myself not willing to talk to the Lord about certain behaviors, attitudes, or habits because I felt disappointment with myself or even shame. I am learning however, that it is those very things that must be talked about with Him. These are the very things Christ wants to heal or free me of. Instead of trying to fix myself up before I go to Him, He wants me to come to Him just as I am. I can bring every sin battered area of my life to Him and confess it. He is not surprised. He knows anyway. He is just waiting for me to bring it before Him in order that He can forgive me and give me the grace and strength to overcome. We follow a Savior that knew temptation of every kind yet never sinned. He understands the battle we go through here. He also is our provision for our sin. When God looks at us, who have made Him Savior and Lord, He sees us through the blood of His precious Son. So we have no reason to try and hide anything or any area of our lives. We have Jesus as our advocate. We can bring anything before Him and know that He will not only forgive us but if we are willing, He will deliver us from the things that beset us!
There will be times when through our disobedience we will feel the sting of correction. If we continue in something we know we should not be doing the Lord will allow us to be corrected just as we correct our children or grandchildren when we see them doing wrong. He loves us and therefore will not allow us to continue in deliberate sin without suffering any consequence. It is so much easier to run to Him and confess before it gets to that stage. If we make the choice to continue in deliberate sin knowing it is wrong, we run the risk of suffering the shame of open correction either by God Himself, or another and suffering the consequences of the sin which tends to be a lot more painful. We also run the risk of hardening our hearts to the Spirit of God and thereby allowing sin to become our master.
There was a time in my life that sadly I allowed heartache and disappointment and the cares of this world to draw me away from my intimacy with Christ. I have since learned that He never stopped loving me and He never stopped wooing me back into His arms. He loves me and He forgives me. He loves you and He will forgive you!
Let’s read together Hebrews 12 NIV 12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone he accepts as His son.”
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. 14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. 16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. 17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.
18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20 because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” 21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”
22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
25 See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven? 26 At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”
Why waste any more time trying to shelter the sin in your life? Isn’t it time to open up those boarded doors and confess your sins to the One who is able to forgive you and cleanse you of all unrighteousness? Don’t allow anything to keep you from the lover of your soul. There is no sin worth the separation it causes between us and God. Our God is a consuming fire and yet He has made a way for us to come before Him and that way is Christ.
Father help me to really understand that You are a holy and consuming fire. I come before you and bring all my baggage. I confess my sins before you. I have messed up and am in need of your cleansing. Please forgive each of my sins and cleanse me now of all my unrighteousness. I pray that You will guide and direct my through your Word in how to live a life that is pleasing to You. I ask that You will keep me from temptation. I thank You that I can ask this all in the name of the One who died to enable me to be forgiven. I ask it in the precious name of Your Son, Jesus.
Amen.
