Blot

Our sins are stronger than we are, but you will blot them out.

 - From Psalm 65

It is hard to make a more honest statement than that: "Our sins are stronger than we are." Remember what the Apostle Paul wrote: "There seems to be a law that, whenever I do good, sin is right there beside me," (paraphrased).

Not only are our sins stronger than we are, but they are our sins. That bad side . . . the evil that we want to do, our "dark" side - - - we all have it. And the problem is, evil is based on our own selfish wants, needs, and drives. If it is something that we just have to do, or have, or eat, or experience, chances are,we're talking about something sinful.

And it doesn't have to be one of the obvious, or most renown sins. Everybody knows it's wrong to kill, especially if it's murder of an innocent person. Everybody knows you should not lie. The more public a sin is, the more eager we are to avoid it . . . because our ultimate goal is to be thought of highly by others . . . which is a selfish desire, which gets us back to the basic sinfulness that we started talking about.

That craving for a hamburger at 10PM . . . that's sinful. It would be better to do without. That little cheat on a high school exam . . . sinful. So many things that actually didn't hurt someone else, not really. If it is something you just have some urge to do, and you act on the urge . . . it's sinful. Because you are taking care of yourself first. You haven't really been thinking about the well-being of others. 

We need to be mature enough to admit that an awful lot of what we do . . . even the "good" things we do, are selfish, and therefore sinful. Even young lovers, going about with public displays of affection . . . as good and heartwarming as that is, to most people, may be deeply hurtful for a lonely person to have to see.

Just admit it. We're all too self-absorbed to be able to have a true, unbiased discussion about the nature of sin. Jesus, and John the Baptist, drew no attention to themselves. The attention became, most likely, because of the desire of each individual in the crowd, to make a name for themselves . . . or because they were too cowardly to stand up to the crowd. Either way you look at it, even the fame of Christ was propelled by sinful, selfish, predictable actions on the part of people.

We're immersed in it. It's overpowering. We might as well own it, so that we can realize how much we depend on God.
We cannot undo the bad that we've done. We cannot apologize our way out of it. We cannot will ourselves to become pure and perfect.

But God can blot out our sins, like you would dab a stain off your shirt with a wet cloth.

So let Him blot.