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In the book of James he talks about every man being tempted when he is
drawn away of his own lust and enticed, that when lust has conceived,
it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth
death. That is temptation as we usually think of it. But I would like to talk about another form of temptation: the temptation not to confess a sin when it has been committed. In my early Christian experience when I did something wrong the struggle I had in confessing my sin was due to embarrassment, shame, and guilt which were in all cases a product of pride. It made me feel uncomfortable to confess my sin. What would people think of me? There was usually some form of sorrow attached to the sin and eventually I would tell someone something of the thing I did wrong. The temptation not to confess a sin due to pride is one form of temptation I have experienced. Another form of temptation, a more subtle form of temptation, is when you do something wrong but you feel no sorrow or shame or guilt or anything. You do it and there is no thunderbolt, you just move on. When you are sanctified, set free from sin, you are free to sin or not sin as you choose. When you were in the world you were a slave to sin and could not help it. But in this latter case, you sin, maybe not giving it much thought, and maybe it comes on you unawares and you just do it. When this happens there is no feeling motivating you to confess and you can just let the whole thing go if you so choose. Recently when this happened to me I started a dialogue with God. I realized that if I did not confess my sin then two things at least would happen. The first is I would begin to loose my anointing and the second is that the devil would have a legal right to hit me with everything he had. The third thing is I would commit other sins to cover up the one I committed. This led me to confess my sin to a friend and to make amends to the person I had sinned against. The result was that by confessing my sin I was once again free and in the proper grace with God and man. Many a spirit filled Christian has faced sinning even with a great anointing on their lives. By not confessing their sin they have fallen from the grace of God and have brought on a great deal of sorrow for their congregations. If you have sinned and not confessed your fault it may be a good time to do so. I did and I am grateful. Amen |