From the exhortation given by Pastor Brian Phillips on Sunday, January 8th, 2017.
Psalm 51:1 says, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.”
David’s great psalm of repentance, written after his sin with Bathsheba, is characterized by brutal honesty. In no way does David try to sugarcoat his guilt, or excuse his sin. Rather, he begins directly and openly – “Have mercy on me, O God…”
This is an important matter for us to remember because, too often, we can be tempted to come to God as our own defense attorney, rather than as people confessing that we are guilty. And, we must learn to practice this kind of spiritual honesty, not just with “big sins” (as we may like to categorize them), but with every sin. After all, most of our lives are affected, not by the major things but by the little things we struggle with day after day.
Paul Tripp wrote, “The character of a life isn’t set in ten big moments. The character of a life is set in ten thousand little moments of everyday life. It’s the themes of struggles that emerge from those little moments that reveal what’s really going on in our hearts.”
Let us, then, honestly confess our sins to the Lord…