Friday 3 June 2011

Those secret sins

You have set our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance. - Psalm 90v8

What about those rotten little sins that we think we get away with? If we are not dealing with any of these at the moment, I suspect we all know about those 'secret sins.' Sometimes they may be obvious, physical, external sins that we think we have pulled off when no one is watching. Afterwards we think that, because no one saw us, we are okay and we 'got away with it it.' On a brief side note here, it amazes me what well known people do in this regard. Are sometimes their stupidity amazes me. The dumb stunts they pull off seem unreal, and they have to know they are going to get caught!

More often though I suspect that these secret sins are sins of the heart and mind. We allow sinful thoughts and ideas to roil in our heads and think that we can control them. Lust, anger, covetousness, bitterness, and jealousy are among those kinds of sins. Unless we 'blow it' we think that nobody knows.

On second thought, maybe my note about famous people was not just a side note. Eventually these folks get caught by the media or some enemy exposes them or someone trying to make a name for themselves posts something on Twitter or Facebook or YouTube and then the whole world knows. We then wonder if they have any sense at all.

Really those, when we think that we can keep our sins secret was are just as foolish as these people, if not more so. While they have to worry about the media or their enemies or whatever they might just pull it off. They might no get caught. They might just get away with it.

We, on the other hand, have someone even more knowing that the media. We have someone who does not have to depend on a slip up or us taking the wrong step. Here is what the psalmist says about God and our sins.

'You have set our iniquities before you. Our secret sins are exposed to the light of Your countenance.'

God does not need Twitter or Facebook or YouTube. He already sees those secret sins. We, like the celebrities who get caught, can try to explain things away. But God has seen it all.

Now who seems like the fool?

There is an answer. Deal with those sins, confess and forsake them, and let God permanently erase them.  

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