Psalm 32:1, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered."
On our kitchen table sits a fish bowl. Most days, everything looks clean and clear. But when stirred, all the filth gathered on the bottom, normally covered and hidden between the rocks, swirls to the surface, showing the true nature of the water.
Nothing puts me face to face with the ugliness of my sin than trials. This past week has been a torrent of skirmishes against my selfish nature, most of which have been fought in my own strength and lost. Difficulties have revealed afresh my wicked heart: complaints, anger, doubt, impatience, self-centeredness, bitter speech, arguing, discontent, worry, desire to control. When things are "normal," these manifestations of my utter vileness are easier to hide, such that I deceive even myself into thinking I am "good." But when God shakes up the fragile order I have tried to make of my world, I am forced to cry out like Paul, "Wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death?" Romans 7:24. Then I remember that all my righteous acts are like filthy rags, Isaiah 64:6, and I am driven facedown to the cross of Christ to plead for His absolutely undeserved grace and mercy.
Every day my children and I sing from Romans 12:21, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Truly, there is only one thing stronger than the baseness of my sin, and that is the goodness that comes only from God. Each time I set aside my own fleshly desires to tend to my suffering son, I experience this power firsthand. Only love can drive a selfish soul to choose the needs of another over its own. "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love is from God," 1 John 4:7. Only love can defeat sin. My skirmishes were lost, but the battle has already been won by Christ, when he shed His blood for me by choosing to overcome evil with good. Oh how helpless we would be without Him! 1 Corinthians 15:57, "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
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