{"id":11202,"date":"2017-07-18T00:10:27","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T07:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=11202"},"modified":"2017-07-18T00:10:27","modified_gmt":"2017-07-18T07:10:27","slug":"july-18-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/07\/18\/july-18-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"July 18, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cHe who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.\u201d<\/em>
\nProverbs 28:13<\/span><\/p>\n

Admission of Guilt<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

I felt great relief a few days ago when my adult son shook his head at himself and said to me (excuse his language, please), \u201cI was such a turd when I was younger.\u201d He was referring to his teen and young adult years when he had made ongoing bad choices that adversely affected the lives of many people and broke our hearts.<\/span><\/p>\n

I actually felt joy at this admission of guilt coming from him. These few simple words meant that he knew he had done wrong; he knew he had made our lives difficult and caused us grief. It meant he had matured. It meant that what we had taught him all those years mattered to him, and he knew he had strayed from our training. Most of all, because of how his sin made him feel, it meant he would not choose that path again.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was disgusted with himself. \u201cTherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes\u201d<\/em> (Job 42:6).<\/span><\/p>\n

God wants us to hate our sin. \u201cYou who love the Lord, hate evil!\u201d<\/em> (Psalm 97:10a).<\/span><\/p>\n

Our admission of guilt brings joy to our heavenly Father as well. \u201cI say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance\u201d<\/em> (Luke 15:7).<\/span><\/p>\n

As our Scripture today says, He wants us to confess and forsake our sins, so He can have mercy on us. Everything my son\u2019s confession means to me, means the same to God. God wants us to admit we\u2019ve done wrong and caused Him grief. He wants us to mature, to stop straying and choose to follow His teachings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, isn\u2019t it so much easier to pray about someone else\u2019s sin! But no\u2014He calls us each to consider our own separation from Him, our own iniquities, our own need for a Savior.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFather, create in us a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within us. If we are blind to any unconfessed sin in our lives, we ask You to show it to us and lead us to repentance. In Jesus\u2019 Name, Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHe who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.\u201d Proverbs 28:13 Admission […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-2UG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}