PERSONAL SIN
Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24
“I can never be a true disciple of Jesus Christ until I adequately despise sin. It is not enough for me to abandon sin; I must loathe it. God refers to sin in terms of beastliness, the stubborn horse, the wily snake, the mud-loving pig. That is not accidental. The beast does what is natural to it; his behavior is instinctive, and it is not redeemable. The beastliness of sin represents sin in its farthest distance from God, not merely that which is different from God, but that which is opposite.
My true feeling about sin is never reflected about sin in general; it is always about sin in me. God never redeems abstractions or principles; He redeems people. Until I can loathe the sin that I commit, the “darling sin” as George Whitfield once called it, I will never understand God’s attitude toward my sin and His undying determination to redeem me from it.
My true attitude toward a specific sin seldom is formed before I commit it; that occurs afterward. It is difficult to see sin in its true light, when it approaches me to tempt me. Then sin may appear as ‘good’ to the taste, a ‘delight to the eyes,’ and ‘desirable to make one wise’ (Genesis 3:6). But once it has done its work, I see it viciousness, I feel defiled, I mourn my actions, and I turn to God in pitiful humiliation for His cleansing power.
To be a true disciple of Christ I must see the beastliness of sin before it works its devastation upon me. I must hate it everlastingly. I must never lose my grip on the fact that is was my very own sin that drove Jesus to tears, to loud outcries, to moaning and groaning, and to the bloody nails. When I feel this way about my sin, I will understand Isaiah’s ‘Woe is me’ (Isaiah 6:5) and what it means to be cleansed with a coal from the altar. From Daily with the King – Moody Press
Compass Pointers: “Many there are who, at first, fail in the full apprehension of the utter ruin of nature, as looked at in God’s presence, though their hearts have been attracted by the grace of God, and their consciences tranquilized, in some degree, by the application of the blood of Christ. Hence, as they get on in their lives, they begin to make deeper discoveries of the evil within, and, being deficient in their apprehensions of God’s grace, and the extent and efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ, they immediately raise a question as to their being children of God at all. Thus, they are taken off Christ and thrown on themselves, and then they either take upon themselves ordinances in order to keep up their tone of devotion, or else fall into thorough worldliness and carnality. These are disastrous consequences and all the result of not having ‘the heart established in grace’.” C H Mackintosh
Anchored to the Rock: When I pray, coincidences happen. William Temple
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