Tag: confession

Categories
Christian Living discernment

Willful Blindness

Does your computer or mobile device interrupt you at inconvenient times? Last virus scan was 73 days ago. “I can’t bother with this right now,” I say while quickly triple-clicking Ask me later. “I’ll just pretend I didn’t see that.” But then the inevitable happened; a virus wiped out my laptop’s hard drive.

Losing important documents and hundreds of pictures (no, I didn’t back them up🥺) was a real eye opener. These days I am more careful to perform the necessary preventative maintenance needed to keep my computer running smoothly.

There have been times in my life when I received a similar message from God. David, you haven’t REALLY talked with me in 7.3 days. Frankly, the Lord’s admonition felt more like an interruption. My heart wasn’t ready for inconvenient truth. “But Lord, I’ve been super busy.” Note to self: Any prayer that starts with “But Lord…” means danger. A wipe-out is imminent.

The unexamined life is not worth living

Socrates

Self-reflection can be helpful, but King David, of ancient Israel, went a step further. He asked God to examine his life.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139:23-24

Our Heavenly Father’s scans are always accurate. He tells us the good AND the bad. On the other hand, we often only tell ourselves what we want to hear. The world can’t be trusted to give us a reliable reflection either (1 John 2:15-17). My friend Alan, from Devotional Treasures points this out beautifully in a recent post, “The News of the World.”

Willful Blindness. It happens when we consciously close our eyes and ears to information we’d rather not acknowledge. And the outcome can be disastrous.

Kind reader, was your last “heavenly heart scan” simply too long ago? Yes, being searched by God sounds harrowing. But He knows everything anyway. May as well let the Great Physician do His thing.

🙏❤️ prayers and love.

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Portions of this post were taken from Wakey Wake, Cupcake, which was published on July 5, 2019.

Categories
Christian Living listening

Selective Listening

It happens every 4th of July – Independence Day here in the USA. In our little hamlet it’s perfectly legal for folks to shoot off fireworks, on the streets and from their back yards. And each passing year the relentless noise seems more startling to my sense of well-being. Time to break out the ear plugs.

So I’m sitting at the kitchen table (plugs in) surfing the net, when my wife comes in and starts rummaging through a cabinet drawer. She looks my way and says something unintelligible. I respond, “If you’re telling me something right now I can’t hear you.” She starts laughing, because she was chiding me (kindly) for misplacing the ink pen that goes in the drawer. Confession: I occasionally employ something called “selective spousal listening.”

This whole scene made me think of something God said to Israel during the prophet Isaiah’s time.

Don’t think the Lord is too weak to save you or too deaf to hear your call for help! It is because of your sins that He doesn’t hear you. It is your sins that separate you from God when you try to worship Him.

Isaiah 59:1-2 (GNT)

Here’s an experiment: Watch television for a week and count the number of times you hear the word “sin.” I suspect you won’t run out of fingers. Transgression of divine law isn’t something the world cares to talk about. But why?

Somehow we know instinctively there’s nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in us. Sin damages our fellowship with our Creator and disrupts the ability to communicate with Him. This causes even unbelievers to scurry for the shadows (John 3:19-21).

Have there been times when you’ve tried to talk with God, but it felt like He wasn’t tuned in? Me too. “Child, if you’re telling me something right now, I can’t hear you.” Of course the Lord isn’t deaf. But He occasionally employs something called “selective divine listening.” Our unconfessed sin plugs His ears.

Thankfully, there is a solution:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9 (NIV)

God always listens to prayers that start with, “Sorry, Lord. It was my fault…”

A Parting Thought:

Jesus often slipped away to spend time alone with God (Mark 1:35). He also led a sinless life (Hebrews 4:15). Is there a connection? You and I will never be sinless–this side of heaven. But we would do well to follow Christ’s example.

🙏❤️ prayers and love.

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Categories
Christian Blog

Weeds

It happens every spring, intruders invade my lawn. Hardy weeds with sinister names like, Bullnettle and Prickly Lettuce, and ones with cute names, like Chickweed and Goosegrass, try to choke out my beautiful Bermuda.

Enter, the Weed Sheriff. That’s me. You’ve got to stop the trespassers before they go to seed and make those little burrs that stick to your dog’s fur.

No weed is safe in MY yard!

I know, I know, I could treat my whole lawn with some industrial strength herbicide. But I ENJOY weed busting.

When I think of a large yard that has both good green plants and bad, it reminds me of Paul’s advice to his young protege, Timothy.

In a large house there are articles of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.

2 Timothy 2:20-21 (NIV)

Weeds are like sin to the Christian life. Both are instruments of ignoble purposes. Allow me to illustrate with a particularly insightful acrostic:😀

  • Pervasive – the weeds of sin are all too common and hard to stop.
  • Invasive -they pry and protrude into our lives.
  • Evasive -weeds are deceptive and misleading, often camouflaging themselves.

There’s not just PIE in the sky, there’s some right off the back patio. Therefore, daily weed control (confession of sin) is a necessity. My former pastor and mentor, called this cleansing process, God’s ‘washcloth.’

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9 (NIV)

Weeding must be intentional.

But how do we tell the grass from the weeds? No worries. The best strategy is to not be the only sheriff in town; ask the Holy Spirit to treat your whole life with a heavenly strength herbicide.

Get rid of the weeds and God’s grass will grow.

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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Galations 5:22-25 (NIV)

https://davidsdailydose.org/2020/08/08/weeds/

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