Finding mercy

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

FINDING MERCY

Prov 28:13

13 He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

NIV

If this is not the explanation of salvation in the Old Testament, then nothing is. If a person conceals or does not acknowledge he has sin in his life there is no way he is going to receive forgiveness from God and thus will inherit eternal life. It is when we come to God, confessing our sin, repenting or at least having a repentant heart, seeking his truth, Jesus, and accepting his forgiveness through Jesus' death and his new life, though Jesus' resurrection, that we find this mercy. Truly this is the plan of salvation within this proverb.  Yet what about after all that has transpired and we have been saved, born again? We still are not completely free from sin in our body. It is true that we no longer live in sin it has been forgiven, covered by the blood of Jesus. Yet, as long as we are in this body, we will continue to wrestle with some areas of sin. What we do with it is also spoken of in this saying. We cannot think we are sinless, that we never sin anymore. That would be, in essence concealing our sin. We cannot simply think the wicked vile sins of the body, such as lust or immoral acts are the sins we have overcome. There are so many thoughts which are sinful such as having a judgmental attitude or being jealous or envious. We still might even commit some form of gluttony. This applies not only to food, but to overdoing anything. The word glutton is derived from the Latin word, “gula which is derived from the word gluttire” which means to gulp down or swallow. It means overindulgence or overconsumption of food, drink or wealth items. One dictionary defines gluttony as excessive eating or drinking, but also as greedy or excessive indulgence accused of a nation of energy gluttony. This could apply to our over appetite for things, our constant need for more, bigger, better, newer stuff. To ignore any of our attitudes in this life would be similar to concealing them. If we live without acknowledging them before God, how can we expect to prosper? We have to be realistic about the fact we fail to live up to his standard. We are incapable of living up to the standard of God, which is why we need Jesus. In our spirit we do want to please God, live faithfully, and we do, but our body refuses to obey as fully as it should. This was the struggle Paul dealt with and it is ours as well. Yet we cannot escape it or pretend it is not there. God knows us, he loves us, and we need to admit our failures knowing they have already been forgiven. That is where we find true peace, true prosperity, where we can push forward in our walk with God, where we find his love and compassion. We have to know we cannot hide them from him, but we need to not try to hide them from ourselves either if we are to find mercy.