Gold Nugget
Verse 13: “He
who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and
forsakes them will have mercy.”
Commentary
If we were in an
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, we would begin by saying, “Hello, my name is ___
and I am an alcoholic”. It’s an
underlining principle that the individual comes to terms with their weakness.
As we discussed in the devotion entitled, “An Intervention”,
all works of the flesh fall under the heading as “Sin”. All sin (large or
small) comes from the same origin. Likewise, all sin (large or small) end with
the same result. What do we know of sin and its conception? James Chapter
1:14-15 says, “But each one is tempted
when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has
conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth
death.” All sin begins when we are drawn away by our own desires and ends
with death. “For the wages of sin is
death.” (Romans 6:23a) All sin (large or small) ends in death. If I live a
life apart from repentance towards God, I will inherit death. This is according
to the scriptures, but death from sin does not always wait until the end. If I
engage in the sin of adultery, I could inherit the death of a marriage. If I
engage in stealing, I could inherit the death of my freedom. Simply said, sin
is destructive and does not always wait for the end before death starts to
reign in our lives, relationships and so on. How long it takes for death to
creep in and how much destruction sin brings should not be weighed for its
worth. A fool will weigh the death of a marriage against the present pleasures
and allow death to creep in. Sin and its deadly destruction will take more than
you bargain for. Many of us have the wrong attitude towards sin. We measure how
big the sin is, when actually it all has the same end. I don’t want to die of a
slow agonizing death any more than I want to die from a fall off a building.
They both end in death. Sin is sin and I don’t want to deny or cover it up. I
would rather confess it and have it removed far from me. I don’t want to be
like the man in today’s “gold nugget”. “He
who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them
will have mercy.” When we do sin, we can no longer pretend that it does not
exist and try to "cover" it up. We need to be more concerned with how
the Scriptures view sin and accept the truth of our weakness and allow God to
remove it from our life through repentance.
Prayer
Lord, I thank you for how true you have been to
me. I am grateful for the revealing affect the Light of your Word has in showing
me the sin in my life and I purpose to allow your grace and mercy to provoke
repentance. Amen
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