Bible Devotions for Living

Are you ashamed of your sin and hate it?

Were they ashamed when they acted so abhorrently? They weren’t at all ashamed. (Jer 6:15) (Also Jer 8:12)

Israel in the Bible teaches us so much about our relationship with God and gives a glimpse inward at ourselves. In the passage above, the Lord is calling out Israel’s sin and asks the rhetorical question about them being ashamed of it. They were not! Did you realize that God started warning the Israelites about the upcoming exile to Babylon for their sin about 120 years in advance? That’s right. In 120 years, the Israelites didn’t change their ways. Were they so used to their sin that they didn’t even notice it anymore? Did they not take their sin seriously and just assume God forgave them even though they weren’t repentant? It doesn’t matter why they were not ashamed of their sin, the point is that they were not ashamed of it.

What About You

Let’s be clear: you will sin. We all do. But the danger is getting used to it. You shouldn’t shrug it off as “no big deal” or ignore it. When you sin, you should hate it and turn to God humbly and confess, apologize, and ask for forgiveness.

The Bible has great examples of people recognizing their sinfulness like Peter who saw Jesus’ power and fell to his knees and said, “Go away from me, because I’m a sinful man, Lord!” (Lk 5:8) and the prophet Isaiah who saw God on His throne and said, “Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips…” (Isa 6:5).

Recognize that you are sinful, more sinful than you probably even think.

Take your sin seriously. Hate it and be serious about getting right with God.

Look at how God encouraged Israel to react to their sin and make things right:

¹³ Dress in sackcloth and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar. Come and spend the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, because grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. ¹⁴ Announce a sacred fast; proclaim an assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land at the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. (Joel 1:13-14)

¹² Even now—this is the Lord’s declaration—turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. ¹³ Tear your hearts, not just your clothes, and return to the Lord your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, and He relents from sending disaster. (Joel 2:12-14)

Take your sin seriously and hate it. After all, it is because of your sin that Jesus, God the Son, had to come and experience God’s wrath. Sin is a big deal. Be ashamed of it and hate it.

Think about it

Do you recognize when you sin?

Do you feel genuine shame and remorse when you sin, or are you indifferent?

Are you even more heartbroken about your repetitive sin? What about your intentional or pre-planned sin?

When you sin, do you get alone with God and truly repent with a heavy and contrite heart? Do you cry out for forgiveness and plead to God for help you not do it again?

Don’t get used to sin and think it’s okay. Keep a soft heart that is quick to recognize sin, hate it, and run to God for forgiveness and change.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, because I’m a sinful man, Lord!” (Lk 5:8)

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne …  ⁵ Then I said: Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. (Isa 6:1, 5)

⁹ He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple complex to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee took his stand and was praying like this: ‘God, I thank You that I’m not like other people —greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’ ¹³ “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, turn Your wrath from me—a sinner!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other; because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Lk 18:9-14)