Psalms 32

For the Kids

When we do bad things and try to hide it from God, it hurts us. It causes us to feel like we are dead inside. God sees and knows EVERYTHING and already knows we did the bad things, He just wants us to come to Him and admit that we did wrong. We need to tell God when we have done bad things, and then know that that He doesn't hold it against us and will help us to stop doing those bad things. He even treats us as if we never did any bad things, when we are able to take it all to Him. That is so wonderful and we should thank Him that because of Jesus, all of our sins are paid for! 

For the Adults

When mankind fell into darkness, it created a rift in our ability to have a relationship with God. He hides His face from sin, and from those that dedicate themselves to - or champion - sin. When we accept the free gift of Jesus' death on the cross, our sins are paid for and we are redeemed from the eternal punishment. We have to continue to fight the sin nature that is in the flesh, however, and will yet sin from time to time. That willful sin can still affect our relationship with God, especially when it is habitual and unrepentant - if we don't put God in the highest regard in our life and put aside all other things that cause us to sin, then we are not loving God the best we can, and that grieves Him. It doesn't mean that He doesn't love us, or that He gives up on us, but it certainly means that He will come to a point where He allows us to reap the consequences of our dedication to sin. 

The first step in this is a realization that we have sin in our lives, and that we don't understand how exactly to defeat it. We then admit to God that we have sinned, and ask Him to help us identify more with the new creation in us, and to no longer love those things that are not a part of His kingdom - yep, the sin and all its ways. It may mean that we need to cut ourselves off from a number of things that cause us to sin - our friends, our practices, etc. "If your right hand (those things most important to you) cause you to sin, cut it off and throw it from you..." 

The wonderful thing in the midst of this is not that God has made rules or defined those things that we love as sinful, but that even though we don't understand how much we grieve God with the things that we do, He still loves us, and is waiting with open arms to embrace and love us. Even when we are reaping the consequences of our sin, or being defeated by our true enemy - Satan - He is there for us, waiting like the father of the prodigal son to clothe us in glory and love us in every way. We have only to admit that our ways are not His, not lean on our own understanding, and acknowledge him in all of His ways and do our best to flee the immorality that ensnares us and grieves Him.

Impossible? Yeah, definitely. But all things are possible in Christ Jesus, who strengthens us. If we surrender our wills to Him, He is just and will forgive us and begin to unravel the messes that we've made for ourselves.