COME CLEAN


Some people reason the Christian life as — "What's the minimum I have to do and what's the maximum I can get away with?" Most of those same people would never say it that way, but they’re thinking that way from time to time. The real challenge is to think the opposite way — How can I maximize my relationship with God, and how can I minimize my sinful behavior? 

A relationship with God is compared to "living in the light." This association includes knowing where you stand with God, knowing that you are forgiven, knowing that your prayers are being heard, knowing that you have the power to overcome temptation, knowing that God is with you. Simply put you must come to grips with your sin. Therein lies the problem. Many are reluctant or indifferent to see they need God to forgive them of anything. This attitude prevents them from experiencing God’s forgiveness. 

God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all…If we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth…If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts…But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness (1 John 5, 7-8, 10, 9). In these verses John is talking about sin, as in our sinful nature and sin, as our sinful behavior. We must come to grips with both. "Coming to grips" is called confession. Confession is pivotal to living in the light. 

Confession is coming to grips with your sin and admitting it to God. Confess means "to agree." The word is homologeo — it means literally "to say the same thing." Confession is saying the same thing about your behavior that God says about it. Confession means that you stop deluding yourself, you stop excusing yourself, you stop justifying yourself — and you come clean about who you are.

Not seeking forgiveness is the obstacle to living in the light—our unwillingness to face our sinfulness. It may be one reason the entire world is falling apart because nobody will admit they are wrong. When you ask God to forgive you, you are willing to own your own part of the world’s mess.

We say to God, "I will pray certain prayers. I will sing certain songs. I'll show up Sunday and try to be good—but there's no way you're going to get me to admit that I'm not just a little bit better than everyone else. There's no way you're going to get me to admit that my wife is not responsible for most of my problems. There's no way you're going to get me to admit that maybe I short-change my boss." That attitude — I'll pay the fine but I'll admit no wrong-doing — keeps us outside a dynamic relationship with God. If you want to live in the light, take a long hard look at yourself. See yourself as God sees you. Come to grips with who you are and what you've done.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 80-20 Rule

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. The Pareto Principle, or 80/20 rule, states that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.   Although this rule was first applied in Italy when Pareto was looking at the dispersal of wealth, it has since become a rule of thumb for many businesses.   It has been said that 20% of your workforce does 80% of the work, or 80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients.   I think this law comes into play in our lives as well.   Life is 20% what happens to you and 80% what you make of it. There are tons of stories about people who come out of difficult situations — gang life, in and out of jail, drug addiction, broken families, abuse – yet still seem to rise to the top.   And of course, there are many stories of those who have been given...
Read more

Control Yourself

When it comes to our life, we have nothing to say about our birth and little say about our death, but in between these two events most of the decisions are ours to be made. Are you letting life and circumstances control you, or are you controlling your own life and destiny with God’s help. Don't let life pass you by when you have the God-given ability to make things happen. I've heard it said: You can't control the length of your life, but you can control its use. You can't control your facial appearance, but you can control its expression. You can't control the weather, but you can control the moral atmosphere that surrounds you. You can't control the distance of your head above the ground, but you can control the height of the contents in your head. You can't control the other fellow's annoying faults, but you can see to it that you do not develop similar faults. Why worry about things you cannot cont...
Read more

Bounce Back

As a 7th grader in junior high school, I was devastated when I was cut from the starting 8th grade football team and sent to the second team.   I felt disappointed, embarrassed and dejected.   Latter that week, I spoke with my grandfather who passed on these words of wisdom, “It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce back that matters.”   I took those words to heart. The Bible says in Proverbs 25:11, “Timely advice is lovely, like golden apples in a silver basket.” I valued his wise words and committed to doing my best for this second string team, instead of pouting and complaining over my sense of failure. I committed to working hard, giving my all to bounce back. It served me well as I entered high school and played on two state championship teams. I learned that day that what happens to me in life doesn’t count as much as how I react to those things.   I had a choice the day I was cut from the team—I could wallow in misery and quit the team, or I ...
Read more