God's Glory Church

“He who hides his sins will not be punished, but he who confesses and forsakes them will be pardoned.” — Proverbs 28:13

Our dog Winston knows that you can’t bite shoes. So he came up with a cunning strategy. We call it “sinning behind the door”. If Winston sees an accidentally left shoe, he casually walks towards it, as if bored. He takes the shoe in his teeth and just as lazily goes to the door. Nothing special, nothing to look at. “Mom! Winston carried your shoe out the door!”

Let’s face it: we all sometimes think that we can just as carelessly carry our sin past God. We want to believe that He will not pay attention. “It’s not that important,” we think. But, like Winston, we all understand and know what the Creator does not like.

Like Adam and Eve in Paradise, we can hide, hiding the shame of our sin (Gen. 3:10), or we can pretend that nothing happened. But the Bible calls us to the opposite: to run to God for mercy and forgiveness. In the Book of Proverbs it is said: “He who hides his sins will not be punished, but he who confesses and forsakes them will be shown mercy” (Prov. 28:13).

If we are Christians, then going to “sin behind the door” and hope that no one will see is not an option. Let us confess our sin to ourselves, to God, to a good friend – and we will find freedom from guilt and shame (1 John 1:9).

Are you trying to hide some sin? What prevents you from confessing it?

Heavenly Father, thank you that sin is not the last word in my life. Help me to speak the truth to You and to people and to be confident in Your mercy and forgiveness.

Author: Adam Holtz