I Am Ashamed

Ezra 9:5-7, “[5] And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God, [6] And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. [7] Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.”

These verses talk about something that is very lost in today’s world—confession of sins. It seems that instead of people confessing their sins to the Lord, people boast of their sins to others. In our world, sin is not just committed all over the place, it is accepted all over the place.

We need to go back to mindset of the one in this verse. He fell on his knees and lifted up his voice to God and said, “I am ashamed.” He realized the sin of the people and went before God to make it right. This is what God wants from us.

Psalm 66:18 states, “[18] If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:” but 1 John 1:9 says, “[9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

When we mess up (and we will), we must confess our sins to God. If we don’t, the Bible clearly states that God will not hear us. Just think about how we feel when someone does us wrong. It hurts and oftentimes continues to do so until it is made right. That is exactly what we do to God when we sin and don’t make it right. As a Farther is hurt when his children mess up, our Heavenly Father is hurt when we mess up.

The challenge today is this. Focus on staying right, but when we mess up, confess it immediately and get it right. Will we confess our sin or will we regard it in our hearts?