• Understanding the Word of God is important. But applying the Word of God to our lives is essential if we want to become who God wants us to be. Sin, we know, is a barrier to our relationship with God. It keeps us from enjoying His presence and power in our lives. In Psalm 19 we discover three important facts about sin and its consequences.
• "How can I know the sins lurking in my heart?" asked the Psalmist. What a question! If we want to know how we look, we have at least three options: We can look into a mirror, ask someone to tell us how we look or search the Word of God. It is only by looking into His Word that we find a true picture of our condition and the consequences it brings. We will quickly discover our faults and failures when we search the Scriptures and see ourselves as God sees us. His Word will become our mirror as we hold up our lives to it, compare our lives with its teachings and ask God to reveal our sins to us. Then with the Psalmist we can pray, "Cleanse me!"
• But there is another request from the Psalmist: "Keep your servant from deliberate sins." To be cleansed is not enough. We need His power and protection to live the life that God would have us to live and become who He expects us to be. Through the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, God will answer this prayer. But we must be sincere when we pray and willing to surrender our lives to the Lord. Then we must allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, guard us and have control of us.
• Prayer: Help us, Father, to read Your Word, know Your Word, accept Your Word and live Your Word. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
• Scripture for Today: Psalm 19:13 Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
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