"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me" ~Psalm 66:18
Iniquity is another word for sin. Its immoral, unrighteous behavior that affects our relationship with God and others. Sin in the life of a believer will create one of two things: a callous heart that justifies and excuses sin or a repentant heart that feels sorry and broken for sin. God takes sin seriously and so should we. He took it so seriously that He gave it all to provide us a way out from under sin by allowing His Son to be sacrificed on a cross, dying a sinner’s death, yet being without sin himself. That would be a big pill for any of us to swallow if it were our child. What a selfless sacrifice! Humankind is plagued with sin due to the choices of our predecessors, Adam and Eve. But God has made a way out of that lifestyle of sin if we choose to separate from it by confessing it to be wrong and appropriating the sacrifice God has made through the blood of Jesus. In Hebrews 12:1 we read “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” (NLT) God says we have a huge crowd watching us. We have people every day listening to what we say and watching what we do and by our actions they either see our faith demonstrated or the ball dropped. Most of us who are sensitive to sin know pretty quickly when we “drop the ball” so to speak. We know we have missed the mark of our high calling and it makes us feel miserable. Not so much that we fear punishment but that we fear dishonoring our Lord. We fear losing the intimacy we have with our Heavenly Father by getting off His path and forging our own.
Other translations of Hebrews 12:1 identifies a “sin that so easily besets us”. For years I thought that meant the sin that so easily “trips me up” but to beset means so much more than that. The definition of beset is “to set about” as in a crown being beset with gems. Besetting sin is the sin that’s around every corner so to speak. The one calling out to you regularly. We all know what temps us and what doesn’t. It’s interesting that the Lord tells us to “strip off” that sin. If you are waiting for God to take the desire off you for your most favorite transgression, you might be waiting a long time. Unless you are willing to get to some word work you might just carry it until you go home to Heaven. We read in Hebrews 12:2 “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith…” (ESV) How many minutes of the day are your eyes on Jesus? That’s about the same amount of time you will walk in victory over sin. When we get our eyes off Him and start operating in this world, we give place to the enemy to distract us. This happens to all of us, all the time, so there is no need in beating yourself up for it. Take the provision God made in Christ and put the past in the past. When you feel a broken heart for what you have done, confess it. Tell the Lord that you are sorry, tell Him you want to do better. He told Peter that he had to forgive seventy times seven…where do you think that came from? It’s because that is exactly how many times that God is willing to forgive you. His mercy endures forever but we must confess and let the Lord lead us into repentance. Just as we need to forgive in the minute, at the very moment someone sins against us, we go to God the moment we sin and call it what it is, knowing that He will forgive us in the moment. Confession is the pathway to restoration, for every area of our lives.
Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. ~Isaiah 55:7 (NIV)
How many minutes of the day are your eyes on Jesus?
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