Reading your Bible for today January 17

January 17: 1 John 1:5-10

KJV Key Verse: 1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Devotion:
I was doing some reading up to try and think of a way of putting today’s devotion when I came across this quote from Charles Swindoll’s Come Before Winter (Multnomah Press, 1985): “The IRS received an anonymous letter:

Gentlemen:
Enclosed you will find a cashier’s check for $150. I cheated on my tax return last year and have not been able to sleep ever since. If I still have trouble sleeping I will send you the rest.”

Would you have to admit to having that sort of attitude towards some of your sins in your life? This does not only apply to people who have cheated the tax-man out of money, or the government, this applies to anyone who has not paid the price for anything they have done wrong! When we argue with our parents, they get cross with us and may well dish out some sort of punishment to us to try and discourage us from doing that again. We then have the choice as to whether we are going to learn from that experience or discard it and continue on. Our choice may not affect our relationship with our parents, but it is going to affect our parents’ feelings. Just as our parents are going to be our parents for the rest of our or their lives, God too enters into a permanent relationship with us when we invite Him into our lives. We can see this from Ephesians 4:30 where is states “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you are sealed until the day of redemption.”

In other words when we are joined with God, nothing can separate us... Because that is true, we need to start thinking about how we act when He is around (i.e. always!) We have to remember that there is no sin in God. He cannot abide with sin. So each time we do sin we are chasing Him away in our lives. It’s no good saying “I’m half sorry, is that good enough?” We have to say “we are sorry for everything” and move on in our lives to try and separate ourselves from that part of our lives....

Points to Ponder:
Do you always try to say sorry?

Do you mean it when you apologise to God?