Dealing With Our Own Sin
God’s Quiet Voice Part 5: Dealing With Our Own Sin
Psalm 25:11
“For your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great.”
When we feel personally and relationally distant from God, it’s much easier to think about ourselves as being good. The ugliness of sin doesn’t seem so bad.
Here’s an example: my wife and I needed to clean the bathroom sink trap. You know, the pipe under the sink stopper that gets clogged every so often. Wow! What we put down the sink had transformed into this black slimy sludge. It was nasty. So, there we are. The bathroom sink looks nice and clean on the outside, but inside it is ugly. It needs to be cleaned out to keep us safe. That’s exactly what happens when God reveals who He is and who we are. What was hidden is revealed. Just as with our sink, our souls need to be cleansed and renewed.
In Freedom in Christ, we are encouraged to meet the Lord and repent in the process we call The Steps to Freedom in Christ every year at least. Some folks do the Steps every time they lead others through them. Why so often? As it turns out, just like the sink, we gather a lot of junk in our lives every year—junk we don’t even see. But as we come into the presence of God and, by prayer, ask God to show us our guilt, He faithfully does so. And after we see sin for what it is, our soul may cry out as David did “...pardon my guilt, for it is great.”
There is a subtlety in dealing with guilt that we need to address. What is the difference between confession and repentance leading to forgiveness? Saying “I am sorry” for something is a weak form of confession. In fact, it may not be confession at all—it may be just admitting a feeling of sorrow. So, it is best not to use this “I am sorry” approach when attempting to be serious with God. A strong confession is a statement of recognition and admission that what we did was actually wrong. But even when we do this, there is no desire or attempt to change.
Neither of these two approaches—saying you are sorry or admitting your wrongdoing—really gets to the heart of the issue. God desires actual repentance, which is a change of mind, a change of heart, and a change of direction.
Repentance means to turn and start on His path toward righteousness and health. Here is a possible sequence of events:
We confess, admitting we were wrong.
We recognize how destructive what we did was to ourself and others.
We allow the pain we have caused to reach our heart, and really feel our brokenness.
We grieve for what we have done—the personal and relational destruction we have brought about.
We recognize that our actions will have ongoing consequences because we will reap what we have sown.
We decide to turn from our sin (repent).
We walk back into God’s light and embrace forgiveness from Him, and healing. It may take time to sense our relational wholeness with God and others we have damaged. So, we wait patiently and with steadfastness.
Note the initial phrase in this verse which says, “For your name’s sake...” This phrase means God has put His reputation on the line for our renewal process, and He will bring it about by building His character in us. God will fulfill the promises He makes. As Romans 5:3-5, James 1:2-4, and Hebrews 12:7-11 indicate, building character likely will require us to suffer and be disciplined. But it is worth it. Let God work!