Prayer Journal
Thursday, February 27, 2003
"But you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your offenses." Isaiah 43:24b
If you've traveled down a remote road, you no doubt seen a long run of fencing with signs posted that read, "No Trespassing!" If it were not for dump trucks going in and out the gate in the fence, you might never know that behind that fence lay tons of rotten, smelly garbage, waiting to be burned, buried or both. And believe it or not, some houses have even been constructed on top of long-buried garbage dumps and the homeowners don't know or care.
Christians are a lot like that. I'm not speaking of the the dump itself, but rather those who bury trash or build a nice house on top of it in ignorance. No doubt untold rotting sin lies smelly beneath the foundation of the spiritual house of many believers. The sad part is that such people don't realize it or care about it even when they're made aware of it. God, however, expects our lives to be clean with no sin left unconfessed. But what does God do with all the garbage we fail to confess?
You may not have realized this before but God forgives our sin, not for our sake but for His own. Isaiah 43:25 says "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sin no more." What that means is that God will not forget our sin, even when we fail to confess or even recall it. In other words, when we sin and fail to confess it to God, we treat Him like a garbage dump site - out of sight, out of mind.
Do you think God ever tires of our sinful life style and flimsy excuses? According to God's Word He does. God expects more of us with each passing day. He knows we're not perfect, but He expects us to be more Christ-like than the day before. The only way to do that is to keep rotting sin from smelling up our spiritual house.
Need a cleaning today? Thank God for 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The next time you ignore your sin by failing to seek God's forgiveness, imagine picking up a shovel full of rotten garbage under you feet and tossing it in the lap of Jesus Christ. Is that really what you want to do?
Just Thinkin'... WebServant
Scripture comes
from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New
York International Bible Society
Copyright © 1998-2003
James R. Green and Prayertower Ministries - All Rights Reserved
I'll pray today for...
* My spouse
* My children
* Their friends
* My friends
* My employer
* My city
* My country
* Civic leaders
* Schools
* Teachers
* The sick
* The lost
* Those in despair
* The hospitalized
* The grieving
* Widows
* Orphans
* My church
* My pastor
* Church leaders
* Other churches
* Persecuted church
* Missionaries
* Myself
