22/How to Get Rid of Guilt
confess because they had no other place to go. And generally they only confessed those things with which they had been caught "red handed." Why are we so slow in wanting to lay out things before God which He already fully knows? This reminds me of the church deacon who went astray and got drunk. A group of his fellow leaders in the church were hastily called together and sought to restore him to fellowship. After the matter was investigated they had him lead in prayer. He began rather piously, "O Lord, Thou who didst make heaven and earth; Thou who didst form man out of the dust; Thou who didst love us with an everlasting love; better than anyone else, Thou dost know how easy it is for all of us to go astray. You know the pressures that we all face. " As he went on intoning his prayer, waxing even more elo– quent, one of the rather exasperated but godly fellow deacons stopped him short with the query, "Brother Harry, why don't you just tell God you sinned and got drunk? Lay it out for Him!" He was exactly right and this is what "acknowledge" means. Covering It Up Won't Bring Peace The second part of this verse presents sin in the singular tense. I'm afraid it's all too easy for us to sear our conscience. Maybe you've heard of the Indian who was asked if he could explain what his conscience was. He thoughfully replied that his conscience was like a three-cornered sharp instrument in his heart. When he did something wrong, and knew it was wrong, it began to turn around fast and those sharp points hurt in his heart. But that wasn't the end of it. He further ex– plained that the more he did the deed and tried to overlook it those sharp corners began to wear down. Finally, after repeated involvement, no longer was his conscience bothered. The fact is that we can all sear our consciences before the Lor~. How sad that we would allow such a thing to take place and It so often does. You remember, Adam and Eve tried to blame God for their difficulties. That was the height of folly!
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