Cherished Sin? // Psalm 66:18-19 (NIV)
Our time together for the majority of this week has dealt with giving God our complete attention in our search to love Him wholeheartedly. Yesterday we explored focusing totally on Jesus to help us with the many distractions from our old ways of living. I want to carry this forward today with a thought from Scripture known as, cherished sin.
A simple way to think about a cherished sin is to ask yourself what do you do that you want to keep secret? You know you shouldn’t do those things, but you do and hope against hope that no one finds out. It leaves you feeling uneasy because you know God sees all, but that hoping against hope feels like it’s taking God’s mercy for granted. God cannot have anything to do with sin and the ones we cherish bring spiritual static in life. God knows all this, which is why He gave us a way out. Consider what King David wrote in Psalm 66:18-20, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and has heard my prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!”
The way out is brought to us today by the letter ‘R’. Realize you have a cherished sin in your life. What is it? Name it. Saying it out loud can help to minimize its powerful hold over you. Repent to God about that sin in your life. Confess it. Concentrate on Jesus. Return to God instead of those cherished sins when you feel the seductive power of those perversions rise in your spirit. Then, never forget that when your life is in Jesus, you have redemption for your sin. Jesus paid the penalty for your sin and fulfilled God’s wrath as punishment.
I want to leave you with this powerful promise from 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Identify that cherished sin then realize it’s power over you; repent and turn away from that old way of living; return to God as love and savior of your life; then live into the redemption that Jesus accomplished for you.
