The Irrational You

I read through 2 Samuel 13 last week and what caught my attention was verse 15 where Amnon hated Tamar after he violated her. Last night during Bible Book Club, we looked at 2 Chronicles 25 and what caught my attention was Amaziah's reaction to the prophet, though it was him, Amaziah, who sinned. I'll ask, has your sin caused you to be irrational?

We all mess up along our journey, there is no doubt about that. And for the person reading who is saying that Christians shouldn't mess up and they have never messed up, well, newsflash, Romans 3:23 says "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". If you feel you have never messed up, I would encourage you to visit the feet of our Father with a humble heart and ask that He reveal the errors of your ways. This isn't meant to make you feel bad, but rather to show you where you need Him to help you.

For those who know they fall into sin, maybe one two many times, have you ever found that your response is one far away from repentance and being accountable? If this is the case, even for a moment, and I'm hoping you did repent afterwards, what was the weight of your heart like? Are you doing what David did when he messed up, going to God in prayer, with a humble heart? Sometimes David cried, his prayers weren't always the pretty type, he had prayers filled with vulnerability in a raw state. You do not have to hide in your sin because you've been caught out. Instead, take it to God, hold it in your hands and hand it over to Him.

For devotion yesterday morning, we looked at Psalm 30, and the title of the Psalm is "The Blessedness of Answered Prayer", and I think prayer has been dancing about since Sunday, to be honest, from a conversation with a friend on Sunday, to devotion on Monday morning, and yesterday's devotion. One significant takeaway from yesterday's devotion was that the devil wants us to remain in our sin. He wants us to believe that we can't face God after we sin. But think about Adam and Eve. After they sinned, God wanted them to face Him, so He asked Adam where he was. Adam's response would have had my dad say to him, That wasn't the question. The question was, Where are you. Adam went to 'reasons', but he didn't need to give reasons there; all he needed to do was say, God, here I am. God would have then seen the leaves around him and would have asked questions afterwards.

Is your sin causing you to give all the excuses and reasons, causing you to push people away, particularly those who are holding you accountable? God doesn't want you to run and hide, clothing yourself in what you think is more appropriate. He wants you to come to Him. He doesn't want you to drown in your sin. You know you are already unable to swim; don't go further into the water. Return to shore, return to His feet, be submissive, and hand over your struggles to Him. Seek Him to remove the desires to participate in the sin that keeps pulling you in.