Searching for Things I Don't Really Want to Find

I've been reading a book called How to Develop a Powerful Prayer Life, by Dr. Gregory Frizzell, and while reading about types of prayer yesterday, I was particularly struck by what he said about confession in prayer. Confession is definitely not a topic we like to talk about--I don't know about you, but I have a tendency to want to hide my faults, not openly admit them. We spend so much time presenting our 'best side' to others that I think we automatically try to do the same thing to God, as if we could keep Him from noticing all the sin in our life if we just put on a good front!

Psalm 66: 18 says, "If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened." That means that if you want an effective prayer life, if you want to know your prayers are being answered, you must confess those sins and turn from them!!

But, how exactly do we go about "confessing our sins?" I don't mean how do we confess something; I mean how do we make sure we're really admitting everything we NEED to admit?
I'm gonna be brutally honest here...I'm so good at hiding my sins from others, that I sometimes hide it from myself, as well. And this is where Dr. Frizzell's statements really struck me: he says, "Far too many believers ask God to search their heart and then give Him about ten seconds to do it!" Yep, that would be me...it's not pretty, but there it is. And I don't think I'm alone in this.

When my kids were little...oh, who am I kidding? They're nearly 18 and 20 now, and they haven't changed. They ask me if I know where something is: "Have you seen my belt?"; "Are we out of mayo?"; "Where's the hammer, and maybe a blowtorch?" Okay, that last one would prompt some serious questions of my own...
Let's take the case of the missing belt: I'll tell them I think I saw it in their bedroom. About ten seconds later they come back: "I still can't find it." STILL?!? You spent all of five seconds hunting for it...you walked into the room, stood in the middle and glanced about. Maybe if you were desperate for the lost object, you actually picked up one or two items on the floor before reaching the conclusion that it's just nowhere to be found.
Then I start making them really THINK about it. When's the last time you know you HAD the belt? What pants were you wearing at the time? Have you found those pants?...they HATE having to actually backtrack and think things through like that, but nine times out of ten, these few minutes of recollection result in the successful discovery of the lost object.

This oft-repeated hunt for lost items in my house is what I immediately thought about when I read these words from Dr. Frizzell: "Friend, you couldn't search a cluttered room by a brief, casual glance any more than your heart could be searched by a ten-second examination."

Ouch. Truth hurts. He went on to say that the sad truth is, the way many believers practice confession is that we ask God, " 'is there anything wrong with my life? anything I need to change?' After a quick, ten-second pause, we then say, 'I guess not, now let me give you my prayer list.' "

The truth is, I'm afraid it's often even worse than that. We pray, "And God, forgive me for all the ways I fail you," or words to that effect, and we don't even bother to stop and ask OURSELVES what all those 'ways' are, never mind asking God what they are.

But there's another problem with 'confession' too--we sometimes have the idea that God is just waiting to beat us over the head with our failures, but in fact God wants us to confess in order to FREE us from the weight of guilt and failure.
Dr. Frizzell says "Consistent confession and cleansing represent the primary ways we grow and become conformed to the image of Christ." That is a very important reminder to me--God doesn't want us to confess so that He can remind us of what failures we are; He wants us to confess and repent so that He can "continue the work He started" in us, making us more like Christ. He also wants us to confess to Him, so that we are reminded that it is by His Grace that we are saved and found righteous, NOT by our works. But Unconfessed sin leaves the door wide open for satan's attacks--He loves to use those unconfessed sins against us, to make us feel like failures, "unworthy" of God's love and forgiveness.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9

Warning, Warning!!

This past weekend I went to a family gathering in my cousin's Expedition. As she was backing up to park, there was a beeping noise--turns out, her vehicle tells her that she's about to hit something...and the closer you get to the object, the faster it beeps.
You can choose to ignore the beeping sound, and just hit the object (realistically, you might just do this, because it will beep whether you're about to hit a truck or a wispy little branch shooting off from a bush). Or, you can abort and try a different direction.
Well, I thought that was pretty cool, but didn't think much more about it until the next day, Sunday. During the service, a particular verse our pastor mentioned just really struck me--well, the first thing that struck me was that this was probably the 3rd time that week I had heard that verse.
And that was when I heard the beeping. Not literal beeping, mind you, which was good, because that would probably be the sound of my cell phone ringing during church. No, this beeping was happening entirely in my head, and behind it was the voice of God, saying, "You know, when you hear My Word, the SAME verse, that many times in one short period, you might want to stop and ask yourself, 'what am I about to hit that God is trying to warn me about?'"

See, God wants us to stay on the right path, and He sees it so clearly when we are heading off the wrong way. And, contrary to what some seem to believe, God is NOT looking just to make us stick to a bunch of rules, and to "punish" us when we do wrong. No, God wants us to stay on His path, because He knows that's where we will stay safe, that's where we will find all the blessings He has in store for us, that's where we will be able to use best the gifts He has given us and find the "life more abundantly" that Jesus promises.
Sometimes, we just begin to angle off that path--we don't even realize it. Maybe it's something "little" to our eyes--we lied about something and have refused to admit it, we are angry with someone and refuse to confront it and find reconciliation, we're confused and trying to find our own way out of a problem instead of waiting for God's answer. And slowly, if we'll listen, the beeping starts.
We are continually reminded of the lie we told...different people keep bringing up a subject that reminds us of the person we're angry with...even newspaper articles and TV shows "coincidentally" bring up the very thing we are either struggling with, or maybe struggling to ignore. And, of course, often the beeping takes the form of God's Word. "In your anger, sin not." "Do not be anxious about anything..." "He who knows the good he should do, and doesn't do it, that is sin for him." Beep, beep, beep!! Warning! Get back on the path before you hit something!!
The beeping gets louder, and faster. "Warning, warning" is ringing out, if we will hear it.

God will continue to warn us as long as He can, but if we choose to ignore the warnings, we WILL eventually run smack into our own sins, and then we will have a much bigger mess for God to clean up.

But we can also listen to the beeps, HEED the warning, and change our direction. It's called "repentance" which just means "change your mind AND change your direction."
See, the car beeped because the sensor KNOWS there IS something there and if you ignore you WILL hit it, whether you even realize it's there or not. Well, God knows that when we sin and ignore it, we ARE going to run right off His path and straight into trouble, whether we can see the trouble coming or not.

I have no idea what else the pastor said that morning, because I was busy backing up and getting myself back on the right path...it was a little thing I was about to hit, and I'm glad of that. But it was still off His path, and that's just not where I want to be.

Is God's warning system "beeping" at you about something? Pay attention, and move back where He wants you to be!!