I listened to my favorite preacher, Mark Dever, the pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist in Washington, D.C., this morning, and he had a good word for me. In a message on James 1, Dever said that sometimes we can see some of God’s purposes for our trials, but other times we can’t. But he said that’s ok; God doesn’t want us to trust what we can reason as good from the trial, He wants us to trust HIM — whether we can figure out the purpose for our specific trial or not!
We do know, however that in most trials, at least ONE of the things God wants to accomplish is purify us from sin. Sometimes that may be the main purpose of the trial; other times it may be just a part of His purposes. Knowing that, I have I purposefully tried to use this “down time” in my life to evaluate areas in my life which are not pleasing to God and confess sin, so that I will be ready and available for all that God wants to do with my life in the days ahead.
One of the passages where God specifically speaks to us about our sins is Psalm 19. This Psalm is a favorite for many, with its opening words that “the heavens declare the glory of God”, and then the section on the word of God in :7-10 (“The Law of the Lord is perfect”, etc.). But then we see one of the PURPOSES of the word of God in :11-14. What will the word of God do for us? :12 says it “warns” the servants of God – that is, it warns us of sin – to keep us on the right path. And then in :12-14 he refers to several different types of sin that God’s word can warn us about. If we want to see a renewal in our personal walk with God, and in our church, we must constantly seek to cleanse ourselves from sin. So let’s look at some of the sins that scripture warns us about here, that we may see revival in our personal lives, and in our church. Continue reading
shawnethomas 