When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. [Psalm 32.3]
Relative to my post yesterday, today's OYCB reading from David's Psalms is full of supportive material.
Question: If our bodies are wasting away (cancer, diabetes, heart failure, etc.), would it not make sense to confess our sin regardless whether we "think" we are guilty or not?
Is not judgment (curses of disobedience in Deuteronomy 28) evidence enough that sin is present and needs to be confessed?
Christianity has done itself a great injustice in making a doctrine out of suffering that has nothing to do with repentance!
We suffer because we need to repent.
And look at this:
How great is the goodness you have stored up for those who fear you. You lavish it on those who come to you for protection, blessing them before the watching world. [Psalm 31.19]
The world is watching and God's will is that our lives show His blessing! Our suffering before the world (even though it tugs an emotional heart string) does NOT display God's blessing before a watching world!
No wonder the world laughs at Christians today! In Moses' day, the surrounding nations feared God's people! But today, not so much - we suffer right along with the rest of the world with no distinguishing evidence of God's blessing.
I don't like this any more than anyone else - I experience suffering just like everyone else - but that does not make our suffering right! If we just look at the names of God sprinkled throughout the Bible we can see that God is a 'bless-er" - He does not desire to punish us, but it is necessary to bring us to... wait for it... REPENTANCE! And He wants us to repent so that the channel of His world-observable blessing on our lives is unobstructed!
God help us REPENT!
Father, more than ever before, I see the need for repentance. As long as there is suffering, there is need for repentance.
No comments:
Post a Comment