Daily Devotional
Be different!
July 14, 2022
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
When I was a little girl, I remember secretly opening a small chest that belonged to my mother and taking out her diary. I don’t remember if I was even old enough to read—and certainly didn’t learn anything shocking about my mom.
But I do remember that panicky sense of excitement as I hid behind the living room piano and delicately turned each page as though it were forbidden treasure.
After finishing, I carefully placed the diary back into the chest, situating it just so. I went out to play, the whole time thinking about what I had done—and feeling worse and worse about seeing her at dinnertime.
Mom rang the dinner bell at the back door and we kids came running. I busily filled the supper table with a lot of anxious chatter, trying hard to act normal.
Finally Mom asked what the matter was. And do you know something? I couldn’t look her in the face. She’d catch my eyes for a moment and then I’d quickly look down at my plate.
Guilt prevented me from looking straight at my mother and answering her questions.
That little story is repeated in the lives of thousands of children and millions of adults.
Looking one another straight in the eyes has always been a test of truthfulness.
God knows that.
In 2 Chronicles 7:14, he says, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
How I love that verse. But especially the part about seeking God’s face. Just as I had to make things right with my mom before I could have eye-to eye contact with her, I have learned that God wants me to seek his face in the same way.
He desires to have eye-to-eye contact with me—transparent, truthful, lacking any guilt, guile, or sin. But that means confession sin—my responsibility. No use filling my prayers with a lot of anxious chatter, trying to fake it with the Lord or lie to myself.
If you have a hard time gazing straight into the face of the Lord today, then you know you’ve got some confessing to do. God wants you to seek his face. There’s nothing like eye-to-eye contact with our loving Father.
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