“If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember
that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the
altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and
offer your gift.” —Matthew 5:23-24
“Never disregard a conviction that the Holy Spirit brings to
you. If it is important enough for the Spirit of God to bring it to your mind,
it is the very thing He is detecting in you. You were looking for some big
thing to give up, while God is telling you of some tiny thing that must go. But
behind that tiny thing lies the stronghold of obstinacy, and you say, “I will
not give up my right to myself”— the very thing that God intends you to give up
if you are to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.” CHAMBERS
OK, so here we go … I am certain I will be stepping on some
toes here. Mine are already
hurting. The danger we face is that we
define our own holiness. We want to live
the Christian life .. to honor God … but there are some things that we have
tucked away in our hearts. Things that
we know are not right, the Word tells us they aren’t, but still we hang on to
them. What is it? Do we think that God will give us a wink and
a nod about that person you have not forgiven or that you offended? Have you rationalized those issues? (I once
heard that rationalize means – rational lies!)
You are comfortable with hanging on to them. And when you are with God they are the white
elephant in the room. Well, God has already
spoken about it. And you already know
what He has said. The problem is
obedience and faith. Unconfessed sin is
a barrier to your relationship with the Father.
Think about it. We approach a
holy God with unclean hands and expect Him to ignore that. By His nature, He cannot. So what does that mean? That means that He will not hear you until
you confess and repent. Does that sound
radical .. harsh .. maybe unacceptable?
I think that is because we have minimized the idea of God being Holy,
unapproachable when we have sin in our hearts, any sin, and have maximized the idea of God wanting to
bless us no matter how we are living or what sin we are harboring in our
hearts. It’s like “OK God, here I
am. This is what I want today. Don’t look at my heart. Don’t ask any questions Lord just give me,
give me, give me!” Think about it. And
then confess to the Lord. ELGIN
(1 Samuel 16:7) “But
the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his
stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man
looks on the outward appearance, but the
Lord looks on the heart.””
(Psalm 18:20-24) “The Lord dealt with me according to my
righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me. For
I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For
all his rules were before me, and his statutes I did not put away from me. I was blameless before him, and I kept myself
from my guilt. So the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according
to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.”
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
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