Sun Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

The psalmist wrote in Psalm 66:17-18,

“I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue . If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” (Psalm 66:17-18)

The psalmist was talking about how he was praying to God and praising God and yet, he said, “If there were sin in my life that I treasured, sin in my life that I cherished, sin in my life I would not let go of the Lord would not have listened.” Unconfessed sin will keep you from being “up close and personal” with God.

When you want to have a deep, private, personal, intimate conversation with someone you do it up close. You do it face-to-face. Have you ever tried to engage someone up close that had bad breath? You know what that is? It is hell on earth. I know people say you can find something good in everything. I have never found anything good in bad breath.

I heard about a couple that met and fell in love. They wanted to get married, but they each held this dark secret they didn’t want the other one to know. Sally had this terrible, incurable case of bad breath. It was just horrendous halitosis. She never was around her boyfriend that she didn’t have a mint in her mouth or she had not just swashed some mouthwash or feeding herself fresh chewing gum. Even when she would talk to him she would always make sure that her mouth was directed away from him. He had a similar secret he didn’t want her to know. He had a tremendously bad case of smelly feet. He would never take his shoes off around her, because he feared if he ever did she wouldn’t marry him.

Even though they could not bear to tell each other their bad secret they did get married. They headed off to their honeymoon and that evening in their hotel room they both decided to make the momentous decision of not trying to hide the secret any longer. She had not used any mints, gum, or mouthwash for several hours. He finally had taken his shoes off as he prepared for bed. When he walked into the bedroom and sat down, she pulled him close to her, breathed heavily on him and said, “I have a confession to make.” Tenderly, he put his hand on her shoulder and said, “I know what it is. You have eaten my socks.”

It is hard to get up close and personal with someone with halitosis. Unconfessed sin in our heart is similar to having bad breath. It doesn’t lessen God’s love for us and it doesn’t affect His relationship to us, but it does affect our fellowship with Him.