Look on my affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins. Psalm 25:18 NKJV
It is good when our prayers about our sorrows are linked with pleas about our sins. It is good for us, when we find ourselves under God’s hand, that we are not wholly consumed with our pain but also remember our offenses against God. It is also good to take both sorrow and sin to the same place. It was to God that David carried his sorrow; it was to God that David confessed his sin. Observe, then, that we must take our sorrows to God. You can roll even your littlest sorrows on God, for He counts the hairs of your head; and you may commit your great sorrows to Him, for He holds the ocean in the hollow of His hand. Go to Him, whatever your present trouble may be, and you will find Him ready and able to relieve you. But we must take our sins to God too. We must carry them to the cross, so that the blood can fall on them, purge away their guilt, and destroy their defiling power. The special lesson of today’s text is this: we should go to the Lord with our sorrows and sins in the right spirit. Note that all David asks concerning his sorrow is, Look on my affliction and my pain; but the next petition is vastly more definite, decided, and plain—forgive all my sins. In our suffering, many of us would have said, “Remove my affliction and my pain, and look at my sins.” But that is not what David says. He cries, “Lord, as for my affliction and my pain, I will not dictate to your wisdom. Lord, look at them, I will leave them to you—I would be glad to have my pain removed, but do as you will. As for my sins, Lord, I know what I want with them—I must have them forgiven. I cannot endure to live under their curse for a moment.” Christians count sorrow as lighter on the scale than sin; we can bear the continuation of our troubles, but we cannot support the burden of our transgressions. - C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening
In this second post for today, I find myself relating to much of it. What to do with sorrow that is unexpressable? What to do with known and unknown sins?
We all probably could relate to King David's plight. I know that quite often I do.
It's a blessing and a curse to be able to mentally multitask. I simultaneously can be happy and sad. Can be glad of something and be moved to almost tears at the same time.
Sin and temptation are everywhere. For everyone. There's no place in this physical universe to go to escape it.
I have also been reading Dr. David Jeremiah's book "What to do When you Don't Know What to Do".
Temptations are more than a musical group from the 60's. As he says in his book, our civilization faces a greater challenge concerning temptations than perhaps any before it. It's everywhere. On your phone, your tablet, your laptop, your desktop, your radio, the billboard you drive by is now a massive television, your television and if you still get it your local newspaper and magazines. It's far from what it was 50 years ago. Sinful temptations find you faster than you can escape them.
If you interact with humans you can face temptation. Even if you didn't, your sin nature would still have its say in your life to cause you to sin.
As I opened with, I can literally be happy and sad at the same time. I am a troubleshooter in looking for answers to problems. A "Solution Dispositioner". My brain can compartmentalize a problem to work on while doing something else. It's how God made me. To that end, it also can be difficult to understand what I am to do in some situations.
I have mentioned it before but it bears repeating that I pray a lot on the way to work. I am an advocate of conversational prayer. Jesus is my King and my Savior. He's also the one who understands me better than I do. He is my best friend. There's nothing that I can't talk about with Him. I try my best to do what He puts before me each day. Where I get into the most trouble is lulls in my thoughts. When there's a gap in between what I was doing and should be doing. Sometimes it's overlapping with what I am doing. Feelings and thoughts can indeed trip you up.
Forgiveness comes only from Jesus, through Jesus and by coming to Jesus. Not through any man or woman on earth. Being forgiven, in my minds eye, is the beginning of healing of the offense. I picture Jesus forgiving me, then helping me to get back on my feet. To get me moving again.
Paul knew the struggles of sin and the need for forgiveness from Jesus. Paul mentioned it in Romans. He mentioned it in the books that followed. James wrote of it.
We, and I certainly include myself, often get to the point of just falling down and falling apart when facing temptation. We roll over and don't fight. To be honest that's one of the reasons why I picked up that book by Dr. Jeremiah. What do I do when I don't know what to do?
I firmly believe that pre-flood Earth was very near to today's world. For the thoughts of man to be evil continually they had technology to make it possible. Evidence that survived the flood in Genesis proves it.
It's hard to fight daily onslaughts against our will. The last few years has also seen a rise in overly demanding people groups that try to force people to sin. To accept what God's Word says is sin. They also want more than your silence, you must confess with your mouth to be supportive of their sin and show allegiance.
I pray for my weak mind and heart when it comes to sin and temptation. I can't fight it alone and win. I am not strong enough. In the power of Christ alone can sin, and temptation be defeated. The moment I have the thought "I got this", a fall is imminent.
Our hope is in what Jesus did. He says to be of good cheer for He has overcome the world. He was tempted in every way yet was without sin. He, through Paul's letter to Ephesus, tells us of the full armor of God. We honestly can't let our guard down for a moment.
Look at your life today. Look at your heart and mind. We can't carry the burden of sin and guilt. Satan certainly would love it to see us believe that we can.
If you aren't struggling with sin you have a significant problem.
Satan and his minions don't bother attacking someone who is already theirs.
Satan and his minions will try whatever they can against Christianity. To cause believers to stumble, fall, to be ineffective.
As representatives of Christ in this world we are his enemy. Go back again to what Jesus said. He has overcome the world. He also forewarned us that we would indeed face temptation.
Prayer is our most formidable weapon against the enemies of the living God.
Are you too weak to fight? So am I.
Prayer helps to heal and lift you up to put you back on your feet.
While in this world we must stay the course. We must continue to guard our hearts and minds. Read the post right before this one. We all need to remember it and practice it.
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