How to avoid traps - Psalm 25

 

Yesterday we mentioned that sometimes those difficult circumstances we face are from our own sins or mistakes.

That's a theme that runs through this psalm. Our own sins, and our own mistakes, can trap us. The name of the trap? The letters on the tag attached to it? Look closely. 

G-u-i-l-t.

David's guilt is painful. He prays:

Do not remember the sins of my youth
    and my rebellious ways; (v 7a)

In verse eight, he refers to himself as a sinner, and then in verse eleven, he cries out to God:

For the sake of your name, Lord,
    forgive my iniquity, though it is great. (v 11)

And again in verse eighteen:

Look on my affliction and my distress
    and take away all my sins. (v 18)

Is it just me, or have y'all noticed this too? The older I get, and the closer I try to follow my Savior, the more I can relate to that prayer - please, Lord, don't remember the sins of my youth!

Are y'all nodding your heads? 

I hope so.

To me, it seems that the closer we draw near to the Lord, the more hideous the sins we committed when we were younger, appear to be. Some of those sins keep coming back to haunt me, do they you? Sometimes I think, "How could I have done those things? How could I have said those things? What was I thinking?" Well, the answer is that I wasn't thinking . . . I was being foolish and sinful.

“My people are fools;
    they do not know me.
They are senseless children;
    they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing evil;
    they know not how to do good.” (Jeremiah 4:22, NIV)

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child . . . (Proverbs 22:15a)

A wise person is cautious and turns away from evil,
But a fool is arrogant and careless. (Proverbs 14:16, NASB)

Yup. That was me. The "throw-caution-to-the-wind kid." It was God's grace that kept me from doing some things that could have had serious consequences!

As believers we should try not to dwell or brood on those sins. Quite frankly, thinking about those things can make us shudder and squirm. Ever been there?  What a blessing to realize afresh that they are now under the blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ! When they DO come to mind, they remind us of how corrupt our heart was (and still is, since we are still susceptible to those same sins). And that reminds us of God's great love that sent His Son to bear our penalty for those sins. 

An application to our lives: as we've said before, thinking about God's great love and His awesome gift should remind us of our own enormous need for grace (and mercy) and also of our need to patiently extend God's grace to others.

Another application is this: whenever we are in a difficult situation, we can use the trial to examine our own hearts. Whether it's a financial need, a health need, a relationship conflict, or some other obstacle, we can ask ourselves if we are in this mess because of our own sin?  Whether in part or in whole, is it something we did (or left undone) that caused this mess? And here is where the rubber meets the road, peeps: no matter if it's our fault or not, what is the Lord trying to teach us? Are we being reminded of our mortality? Our stubbornness? Our pride? Let's use our trials to examine our hearts and lives before our Father God.

If we conclude that our trial is directly related to our sin (or our stupidity!) what should we do? 

We could blame it on someone else, right?

We could deny it, right?

We could bluff our way through and cover it up, right?

In a word, no.

Nope.

There is a MUCH better way, and David is telling all who will listen . . . seek the Lord and His wisdom to know what to do.

The Spirit is nudging me to make sure that I say this . . . it's for my own heart's good, as well as for anyone who may read here: one of God's main reasons for allowing such trials in our lives is to get us to seek Him with all our hearts. As we recognize again how dependent on Him we truly are, we will seek Him more fervently. If our trial is due to a sin that was previously a blind spot, we can confess and turn from it. If, instead, our trial is due to a sin that we actually knew better than to commit, we can confess and turn from it, with a renewed desire to avoid that trap the next time!

David was a man wise in the ways of God. He fell into traps of circumstances and of sin.

We, as believers, fall into the same traps of circumstances and sin as David did. If David, who was a man after "God's own heart," cried out to God for wisdom in his trials, how much more should we do the same!

OK, you may say. That's lovely. Sounds so good. But how do we actually seek the Lord and ask for His wisdom in our hard times?

I'm glad you asked! We're going to study that next week! Hope you will join us!