5-8-2015

Good Morning All!!

           Psalm 139: 23; “Search me, O God, and know my heart!  Try me and know my thoughts!”

     We speak the words almost every Sunday but do we pay attention.  “I, a poor, miserable sinner confess all my sins and iniquities.”  I wonder how many of us think “yada, yada, yada, let’s get this thing moving.”  I almost wonder if it is Freudian when we are supposed to say “heartily sorry for them” do we really say “hardly sorry for them”?  There is just something about the confession of our sins that we just don’t like.  We would probably prefer to avoid it; it seems so self-abasing.

    One of the greatest struggles we have with confession is that we have to admit that we are truly sinful.  We can’t say, “I’m not that bad” because we are “that bad.”   We tend to like to look around and wonder who really needs to make this confession of sins; we might even offer a guess or two but the truth is that three out of three people need to make the true and honest confession of faith.  So next time look to your left and count one then look to your right and count one and remember you are number three. 

     The real reason we need to make a true confession is that we cannot begin to fix what is wrong in our life if we do not recognize what is wrong.  That is why David wrote this psalm.  He is asking God to study him to study his heart and lay open all the festering sin so that it might be cleansed.  Know my heart; do we ever really say this?  Do we really want God to search our thoughts and our attitudes?  Do we really want God to know what my words and my actions really are?  Do we want to confess the things that I shouldn’t have done?  Do we want to look at what we neglected to do?  Do we confess the times that we ignored God’s Spirit prompting us to act according to his will?

    Until we truly go before God and confess our true sins, we will never be fully rid of them.  We may even deny that they really are sins or if they are sins then maybe they are “not so bad” and that that we are “hardly sorry for them.”  As long as we avoid true confess, we miss out on the fullness of God’s grace.  We miss out on some of the joy and the freedom that knowing that we are truly repentant and asking God to help me to change from my sinful ways, from the ways that are harming our relationship with God.  Only through true confession, which leads to true repentance can we heal our faults and correct our failures and bring new life to our existence.

Father, search me; search my heart that all the sin and the evil may be removed.  Give me a clean heart, Oh Lord and renew a right spirit within me.  Guide me to your throne.  Bathe me with your Spirit and lift me up as your righteous child.  Lead me to do your will. In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret