“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Romans 3:23
Often in church we have a time of confession, where we bring sins to mind in order to ask forgiveness for them. I have found myself a bit lacking in this area: because I don’t engage in a similar process during the week, the ten seconds or so for this in the service is clearly not enough. So if I don’t recall any particular sin, what am I asking God’s forgiveness for? Am I now perfect? Well clearly not, just ask my wife! This has caused me to start addressing this issue in my own life.
Just to reassure you I’m not totally backslidden, I find it is very possible to sincerely thank God for his love to me, for Jesus’ death in bringing me into relationship with God, believing my sin is forgiven but at the same time not bringing any sin specifically to mind. In a sense I’m sure this is perfectly valid. I’m sure all Christians commit sins that they are not aware of, and rely on God’s grace to cover those as well as the ones brought to mind. But it strikes me that awareness of sin is crucial if we are going to make progress in our transformation into the likeness of Christ. Some sins are obvious like stealing, telling lies, sexual immorality, but some are much more subtle like pride or things we should have done, but didn’t. It’s this latter group that take some time for us to realise.
When we become Christians we may address a few obviously sinful behaviours, but do we then stop, thinking we’re just about cleaned up? When we’ve been Christians for a few years, we probably include ourselves in the ‘mature’ Christian box. We may think that our main job then is being God’s representative in whatever field He may place us, our own transformation largely having been dealt with. But I think that is an error. I think God’s work of transformation is ongoing through our whole life, and we always need an openness to let Him work in us as we work for Him.
I do believe God directs us to address certain things in our lives, but we can be too passive in that. I decided that I need to be asking God to show me what my sins are, and He has shown me several already. (I wonder why God chose to answer this prayer!).
On addressing sin in his own life, CS Lewis wrote “For the first time I examined myself with a seriously practical purpose. And what I found there appalled me; a zoo of lusts, a bedlam of ambitions, a nursery of fears, a harem of fondled hatreds. My name was Legion.” I think this self-examination, with God’s help, is crucial for our growth.
Lord may we never be too proud to let you work in us, or too busy to let you change us, or too passive to ask for your help in revealing our sins to us. Amen.
