Ever had the past thrown up in your face? Just when you think you past is over and forgotten, some secret comes screaming back at you - that secret is no longer secret!
A lot of Christians can relate horror stories about past sins that have "caught up" with them.
In my past blogs (The Hauntings & Blood Stained Pages) I have attempted to answer the question of past sins and how we as Christians can have those feelings of guilt and self-condemnation forgiven AND forgotten.
All sin is a stark reality we must all deal with sooner or later in our lives - not one of us escapes! - We all have rebelled against God and His standards. Only through Jesus' death can we be forgiven.
In Jesus, even the most heinous of sins can be blotted out by His Sacrifice - if you turn to 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 there are heaps of sins mentioned there that are totally covered by His death on Calvary.
Salvation is by grace and grace forgives.
But what about those 'secret sins'? - What secret sins? I hear you ask.
Our 'secret sins' can be our jealousy, slander, innocent enough sounding gossip, conceit, pride, greed, money worshiping, drunkenness, fraud, stealing, idolatry, bad motives, lust, pornography, adultery and the list goes on and on - some seemingly quite innocent and happen day to day before we even notice.
Even our very thoughts can lead us to sin - so we are seemingly trapped in this never ending and ever widening cycle of our 'deadly secrets'.
Satan is king of strategies! - He is a master of using our secret sins, those no-one knows about, he whispers in our ears to keep them in hiding, maybe justifying them or blaming others so that God will shift that blame somehow onto them and see you as the innocent party. Either way our 'secrets' can remain just that - secrets - our own little realm - out of sight but not really out of mind.
However, on saying that, it is possible through the work of God's Spirit inside of us that we can take up the 'armor of God' He has provided and ready ourselves for battle. Or, on the other hand, we can give in to whatever our particular 'secret sin' is that plagues our lives.
The battle can often be overwhelming and we can be defeated but due to our amazing forgiving Lord we need not be demoralised.
When we sin God's Holy Spirit convicts us and helps us recognise what we have done and encourages us to ask for forgiveness.
May I add here, that God in His infinite mercy wants desperately to have a relationship with us - He is not a Pharisee, always picking fault, and throwing past sins in our faces. His mercy and forgiveness is boundless and free.
So, when confronted by your 'secret sins' admit to them, fess up, name them out loud if you have to and ask God's forgiveness and His help in nailing them to Jesus cross. I heard someone say once that "it is not the sound of a gavel pounding out justice to our guilt but the sound of a hammer hammering our sins to the cross of Christ."
Once those sins are hammered there, no-one can ever pry them off.
So right in the early stages, admit your 'secret sins' and walk away, then we don't have to worry about them coming back to haunt us.
A lot of Christians can relate horror stories about past sins that have "caught up" with them.
In my past blogs (The Hauntings & Blood Stained Pages) I have attempted to answer the question of past sins and how we as Christians can have those feelings of guilt and self-condemnation forgiven AND forgotten.
All sin is a stark reality we must all deal with sooner or later in our lives - not one of us escapes! - We all have rebelled against God and His standards. Only through Jesus' death can we be forgiven.
In Jesus, even the most heinous of sins can be blotted out by His Sacrifice - if you turn to 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 there are heaps of sins mentioned there that are totally covered by His death on Calvary.
Salvation is by grace and grace forgives.
But what about those 'secret sins'? - What secret sins? I hear you ask.Our 'secret sins' can be our jealousy, slander, innocent enough sounding gossip, conceit, pride, greed, money worshiping, drunkenness, fraud, stealing, idolatry, bad motives, lust, pornography, adultery and the list goes on and on - some seemingly quite innocent and happen day to day before we even notice.
Even our very thoughts can lead us to sin - so we are seemingly trapped in this never ending and ever widening cycle of our 'deadly secrets'.
Satan is king of strategies! - He is a master of using our secret sins, those no-one knows about, he whispers in our ears to keep them in hiding, maybe justifying them or blaming others so that God will shift that blame somehow onto them and see you as the innocent party. Either way our 'secrets' can remain just that - secrets - our own little realm - out of sight but not really out of mind.
However, on saying that, it is possible through the work of God's Spirit inside of us that we can take up the 'armor of God' He has provided and ready ourselves for battle. Or, on the other hand, we can give in to whatever our particular 'secret sin' is that plagues our lives.
The battle can often be overwhelming and we can be defeated but due to our amazing forgiving Lord we need not be demoralised.
When we sin God's Holy Spirit convicts us and helps us recognise what we have done and encourages us to ask for forgiveness.
May I add here, that God in His infinite mercy wants desperately to have a relationship with us - He is not a Pharisee, always picking fault, and throwing past sins in our faces. His mercy and forgiveness is boundless and free.
So, when confronted by your 'secret sins' admit to them, fess up, name them out loud if you have to and ask God's forgiveness and His help in nailing them to Jesus cross. I heard someone say once that "it is not the sound of a gavel pounding out justice to our guilt but the sound of a hammer hammering our sins to the cross of Christ."
Once those sins are hammered there, no-one can ever pry them off.
So right in the early stages, admit your 'secret sins' and walk away, then we don't have to worry about them coming back to haunt us.
Hi Bruce.
ReplyDeleteGood message here & one we can all relate to. I saw a good comment recently about looking back into your past. It said something like, "Don't look back into your past. It has nothing new to say." So taking your point, we need to go to Jesus for release and then we need to release ourselves. Nothing good will come from the past, especially our past life in the world. After all, isn't that what we are trying to escape from in Jesus?
God bless,
John.