Near and Dear

What do you hold closest to your heart? Do you cherish memories, good times with family and friends, wild adventures, good books, good food? Is your spouse or significant other closest to your heart? Is God? Is sin? The more I study Scripture the more I learn about God, obviously, but also the more I learn about myself. I had myself deluded for a long time that sin had no spot of importance in my life at all and that I wanted to get rid of it if I could. However, as I let Scripture shine its unflinching light into my life, I have realized just how near and dear to my heart my sins are. I haven't overcome them because I haven't wanted to let God remove them - and had additionally tricked myself into thinking this wasn't true! Then I came across this verse:

If I regard wickedness in my heart,

The Lord will not hear.

                                    - Psalm 66:18

The word 'regard' here comes from the Hebrew word raah meaning to see or perceive, as well as to get acquainted with, gain understanding of, examine, look after/see to, and choose. So, if sin has a spot to call home in my heart, if I examine and get acquainted with sin the way I ought to be with Scripture, if I regularly tolerate and even look for the presence of sin, then God will not hear what I have to say to Him.

Wow. Even as I write that it hits me all over again. The point here is that we humans, as intelligent and complex as we are, can only handle serving one master (Matthew 6:24). Sin leads us to one lifestyle, and God leads us to another. If we choose the sin road, we can kiss our prayer lives goodbye. God will not hear the prayers of someone who cherishes sin.

Catch what that last sentence says carefully before you despair, however. God doesn't say that the only prayers He'll hear are those of the sinless. He says that He won't hear prayers of those who intentionally choose and maintain sin. In other words, it's about heart attitude. God doesn't want us sinless, He wants us to feel repentant and humble. We need not be perfect, just striving for holiness. It's not about what we do, it's about what we cherish, and if we're cherishing the right thing, then eventually we'll do the right thing.

Lord, I pray that You'll teach us how to make You the sun of our solar system and not sin. Show us the sins we hold dear to our hearts and help us remove them from your place, your temple. Remind us of how much sin grieves you and teach us to be repentant people. May we come to covet prayer time above sin, and thereby reject the one in order to maintain the other. Amen.