Passage of the Day: 1st John 1: 9 [see verse underlined and in bold] … 5 This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.6 If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
My Journal for Today: I believe that a pre-determined outcome of walking in the light of God’s Spirit, as we saw yesterday from 1st John 1: 7 (see above in contextual passage), is a God-driven need from the conviction of the Holy Spirit to confess our sinfulness and be fully cleansed by God’s promise and the power of His grace. Unfortunately, however, many mistake the conviction of the Holy Spirit with the clever twisted lies of our enemy, who would disguise God’s conviction as feelings of unworthiness or condemnation. And so, we pursue self-directed and temporary solutions of the flesh, such as drugs, pleasure, or other forms of self medication, which can never provide the healing and cleansing we might pursue from the light of Christ rather than from the fleshly pseudo-cures from the sinfulness found in the worldly or fleshly corners of darkness.
The Greek term of “confess” in today’s verse is “homologeo,” which means to come into agreement with some standard or source of power. In this case we’re talking about coming into agreement with God’s will or His way. In other words, fully surrendered Christians, when God’s light shines on our sin, … we are drawn, like a magnet, into a closeness with God’s revealed and righteous way. And in this process, which is really part of our sanctification, we are shepherded by God’s Spirit, as is clearly taught in Prov. 28: 13, into a restored state of blessing by God. That’s the outcome of 1st John 1: 9; and is that not worth the challenge of overlooking or “fleeing” (as God’s word declares) fleshly pursuits in lieu of healthy confession before God’s throne of grace?
This magnetic draw of being pulled into confession by the conviction of Gods’ indwelling Spirit is the genuine sorrow we feel as born-again Christians from our self-revealed sinfulness. And the outcome of the cleansing of Christ’s blood, when we surrender in confession to be in accord with God’s Spirit, is the heartbeat of true repentance (as in Acts 19: 18 or 1st Thes. 1: 9), which is a turning away from sin, no longer embracing it, but rather seeking to be closer to God and His will by walking away from the ways of the world, Satan, or the flesh. It is the “living sacrifice” and the process of a reformed heart/mind mentioned by Paul in Rom. 12: 1 – 2.
So, again we must ask ourselves. Do we want the eternal spiritual cleansing God offers in 1st John 1: 9; or would we prefer the temporary “fix” that our deceitful heart might get from the flesh? God has given us the choice.
My Prayer Today: I choose Your way, Lord; and I’m praying that others, who read my words here, would do the same! Amen
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