The Scripture reading with which our church prayer meeting opened last night was Daniel 9. We were invited to contemplate and model ourselves after this rich prayer of confession Daniel prays on behalf of the nation, Israel. The prayer begins in verses 4-5:
I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws.”
It is difficult to imagine praying such a prayer in modern culture where most view the concept of sin as passé. And yet, such a prayer is just as needful in our day as it was in Daniel’s day—if not more so.
But do you notice, in the verses above, Daniel’s repeated use of the word “we”? Rather than a haughty prayer for “those sinners”, Daniel’s prayer humbly acknowledges his own sin. This prayer is reminiscent of Isaiah, when he prayed, “Woe to me! . . . I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty” (Isaiah 6:5). If men of God, like Daniel and Isaiah, need to pray prayers of confession for their own sin, how much more do I?
It was this thought, at the beginning of our prayer meeting, that brought to mind lyrics from an old Steve Camp song, “And it pounds like thunder within my breast / All the anger of my humanness / And though I call You “Lord” I must confess / I’m a stranger to Your holiness.” I can relate to these confessions of sin and the attendant yearning for holiness.
Ironically, this recognition of personal sin can sometimes become a scapegoat. In the face of sin, I am tempted to say, “Oops, I did it again,” as if that excuses my sinful behavior. However, Paul’s words in Romans 6:2, “We died to sin, how can we live in it any longer”, simply will not allow me to rationalize my sin in this way. How, then, do we respond to continuing patterns of sinful behavior in our lives? How do we deal with the inner conflict created by the reality of our own sin in view of the Biblical call to holiness?
I am appreciative of insight Gary Thomas provides in this regard in his book Thirsting for God. He perceptively states, “Most of us want to be rid of longstanding sins in a day.” In a fast food culture everyone is looking for a quick fix. But Thomas reveals, “True holiness focuses on drawing near to God. As the love of God fills our hearts, the desire for sin is cut off and withers. But this is a process, not an overnight experience.”
Not only does Thomas point to the absence of quick fixes, he also reveals that the source of our victory is not found in will power or elbow grease, but in “drawing near to God.” This harmonizes with Paul’s argument, in Romans 8, that the power behind victory over sin is the presence of God’s Spirit in our lives. What we need, in this pursuit of holiness, is not more effort, but more of God. As Thomas goes on to say:
When we yearn for our Creator “as the deer pants for the water” (Psalm 42:1), when we learn to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30), holiness will be the by-product of our passion. We cease from sin not simply because we are disciplined, but because we have found something better.
Ultimately, holiness is not about focusing on getting rid of sin, but getting more of God. It is about learning to walk, more and more, in daily relationship with our Maker. Truly, such a walk requires discipline, but it is a discipline focused on relationship with God, not human effort.
Brothers and sisters, I pray that in those times when we feel like “strangers” to His holiness, we will not settle for cheap rationalizations or “I think I can” spirituality. Instead, I pray we will be moved, all the more, to pursue the One who makes men Holy.
Your Fellow Sojourner, Pastor Dan