Sermonette: Editing Our Sins

Sermonette: Editing Our Sins

#085Bs
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 17-Jul-93; 20 minutes

listen:

description: (hide) Richard Ritenbaugh, reflecting on how he chooses the articles to be included in the In Brief column, a process that involves reading and re-reading dozens of times, polishing inelegant sentences without changing essential meaning, making it powerfully readable to the public, draws parallels to our spiritual lives, in which God is the Chief Editor. We are so close to the sins we find in our lives, that we cannot see the forest for the trees. We miss glaring faults in our character because we are so close to them. If we compare our morality with the world, how would we fare? If we maintain a 90% better than the world comparison, we are actually going precipitously downhill if the world is cascading downhill. If we become comfortable with our sins, we become blind to them. We must realize, in humility, that we aren’t perfect. God is not blind to our sins, including our most secret sins; nothing is hidden from His sight. We can ask God to reveal our sins, so we can root them out and repent of them. It would be advisable to ask Him to reveal these faults to us in mercy in order that we don’t become overwhelmed. In order to see our sins, we need a fresh perspective. When they are revealed to us, we repent and ask God for a new heart, enabling us to again serve God as a good example, doing whatever God has called us to do.