Sin Files
I had some email issues recently and it was ugly. I would receive emails in bulk, or not at all. I had no record of sent emails or deleted ones. It was a hot mess of technology and something had to be done. My sweetie-pie husband, who spends large sums of money on only three things: The spreading of the gospel, really high quality food, and Apple products, deemed it time to buy me a new laptop and I was hoping it would solve the email debacle.
It didn't.
He tried to stop the madness and figured almost all of it out except for one annoying problem, every email from as far back as who knows when was now in my inbox.
7, 892 emails.
Seven thousand eight hundred ninety two emails IN my inbox.
And I couldn't just go through and delete them all at the same time because some were recent, some I had never seen before, some had pictures from when the big kids were little and the little kids were tiny (or nonexistent) and even though I'm sure they're saved somewhere I couldn't delete them all in one clean sweep. It was something I needed to go through, and deal with. So there they sat, all seven thousand eight hundred ninety two emails.
Mark saw this just wouldn't do, so he created a little folder on the side of my email page and put every single one of those emails into that folder.
Now I have 0 emails in my inbox.
(Where in the world is she going with this? I know, right?. . . she lost me at high quality food. . .)
When I saw how quickly, and cleanly, he got rid of my problem it made me think a lot about...
SIN.
How easy is it for me to create file folders of sin and tuck them away to be dealt with later, at a more "convenient" time? I go through the junk in my life and it all seems overwhelming, where do I start? If I deal with one it'll just lead to another, and after that another and another... there is SO much! So I'll just package it up, all nice like, and stick it somewhere where I don't have to be bothered by it. No one needs to see it and I certainly don't need help getting rid of it.
I wonder how many of us are like this with the ugly stuff in our lives? The stuff you don't talk about in small groups... The stuff we figure is better left unspoken... The stuff that happened years ago so why would we bring it up now?
Wouldn't it be easier to have an "easy-out" with sin? Something we can just ho-hum about and be on our way? Not really denying it's existence, but not really accepting it either. Sort of middle road. Sounds pretty mediocre to me. Lukewarm-ish even.
“Lukewarm people don't really want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin.”
Well that's one reason to not deal with it, penalties hurt.
The Bible says:
"8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." 1 John 1:8-10
Ouch.
I don't want to be lukewarm, do you want to be lukewarm? Do you want to get to Heaven and fall at Jesus' feet and then sling a file cabinet over your shoulders and say, "Um, yeah, these are the ones I never really got to. My bad."
NO!
Never! That thought is laughable! But when I'm praying, and I've praised God for who he is, and I've thanked him for all his ways, and I've asked him to heal the sick and save the lost what HUGE component of prayer is missing? CONFESSION.
But Sarah, I thought only Catholics confessed?. . .
Just this week a great teacher pointed out to our Bible study that a great adoration of God leads only to a great humbling of ourselves which can only result in a great confession of sin.
If God is exulted high enough I have NO CHOICE but to be low before him and pour it all out. No file folders allowed.
James 5:16~ "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."
Healing comes from confessing, not from filing.
How will our prayer lives, and ultimately our daily lives, be different when we regularly hate and confess sin in our life? That's my challenge this week for me, and maybe for you, to be honest and real and ready to confess the ugly and be healed.
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