The Amazing Way God Handles Your Sin

Let me begin this way: how do your parents feel when you go back against their instructions, especially when you do so again and again? Now have you ever wondered how God feels or what He thinks when you do the wrong thing, especially when you keep doing it again and again?

Consider this Scripture:

And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not (Nehemiah 9:17, KJV).

I am reminded by the above Scripture of my childhood days when I was in the children Sunday School with Living Word Gospel Ministries in Zaria. We had wonderful teachers then who, after teaching us from the Bible, would give us a Bible verse to memorise. So, in order to make that verse impactful, or to be confined to our young memories then, they'd compose a song with the Bible verse and teach it to us. In this way we grew up knowing many Bible verses by heart. The above Scripture is one of them.

The Scripture began by stating that they (the children of Israel during their journey through the wilderness) “refused to obey”. So many times they rebelled against instructions that came from God through Moses. Though exhorted, admonished severally, and even threatened, such was their obstinacy.

We see also that they were unmindful of the wondrous things that God did among them: in bringing several plagues upon the Egyptians while they themselves were untouched in Goshen; in delivering them at the Red Sea; in raining down manna from heaven for them to eat; in giving them water out of the rock to drink, and even in making the countries round about them as they journeyed to be full of dread for their sakes.

Instead they “hardened their necks and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage”. This speaks of stubbornness or obstinacy. They not only proposed choosing another leader and going back to Egypt, but determined upon it, which is reckoned the same as if they had done it. Imagine how frustrating this would have been for Moses then. At some point, he begged God to just take his life because of the people's attitude. God also felt the same way several times, and even told Moses to step aside so He would destroy the people and begin afresh with him by making him, Moses, a great nation. But reason would have a better hold of Moses and he would intercede for them, reminding God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and what the Egyptians would think about that; that He couldn't bring the people to the Promised Land, so He destroyed them in the wilderness (Numbers 11:11-15; Numbers 14:4-20).

But then, Nehemiah goes on in his prayers to say this of God: “but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness and forsookest them not”; when in the wilderness, where otherwise they must have perished, but He still fed and protected them, notwithstanding their provocations. This is the import of the mercy of God. God still loved His people, so He continued to look after them. He continued to lead them by the cloud and the fire. He continued to give them food and water. And He continued to teach them what they should do to please Him. Though they were stubborn and obstinate, He did them good, and eventually kept His part of the covenant by bringing them to the Promised Land. In fact, when God said He has tattooed them on the palm of His hands (Isaiah 49:15-16, Amp), He was speaking from His bowels of mercy.

Now, perhaps, like the children of Israel, you may have been going back and forth in sin, particularly sexual sin, and this has affected your relationship with God, in that you feel so unworthy to come before Him, to pray, to study the Word, to sing, or to even go to church. You see, that way you are feeling should even be the more reason why you run to Him and into everything that speaks about God. Always remember that He is a God ready to pardon. Just as long as you come to Him with a genuine heart and ask for His help in your walk with Him, you can be sure He has been waiting all along for you to do just that. Or, if you are yet to surrender to Him and ask Him into your life, you can do that now, confessing your sins and telling Him how sorry you are about them, and how that you need Him to wash you clean with His Blood and accept you into His fold. His mercy is more than enough to go round. Seize the moment!

More to come in the next post. God bless you.