Daily Devotional for Sunday, January 7

Cover or Confess?

“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy,” Proverbs 28:13.

In most every situation you will find yourself, you have at least two choices. Many scenarios give you several options, even if they start with two choices. For instance, you can either go to church or not go to church. But your options expand if you do not go to church, because you might do any number of things, like staying home, going to the store, going fishing or seeing family. Many other decisions we make only allow two options. You can either brush your teeth or not brush your teeth. You can eat or not eat. You cannot kind of eat, although I wonder if sometimes my children try to kind of brush their teeth!

Notice that Solomon identified three things pertaining to a person’s sins. We can cover them. In other words, we can conceal them from view. Or, we can confess them. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Once we confess them to the Lord, that opens the door to being able to forsake them. Forsaking our sins means that we leave them. We turn away from them. They need to become part of our past, not our present or future. I know I do not always forsake my sins like I should. I am often like someone grazing at the dessert table. One may say he does not want any dessert, but he will stand there and eat a cookie or a brownie or a bite of pie or maybe all three! But if you try to hand him a plate, he will quickly remind you that he does not want any dessert. We often claim we are repenting of our sins, when in actuality we have not truly forsaken them.

JUST A THOUGHT
You cannot cover and confess your sins. You have to make a choice.

Chris Floyd