Seen through grace

The Lord sees everything you do, and he watches where you go. An evil man will be caught in his wicked ways; the ropes of his sins will tie him up. He will die because he does not control himself, and he will be held captive by his foolishness. (Proverbs 5:21-23)

If we think we are not being 'observed' in our folly, we might want to reconsider that belief because God misses nothing. The moment I said that some of us cringed, thinking about something we said, thought, or did in the past 24-48 hours, having hoped God didn't know about it. We all have those moments - wishing we hadn't acted the way we did, but knowing we somehow received grace and healing even after 'acting badly'. God's grace amazes me each and every time. We don't deserve it, but somehow it is right there for those of who call upon his name for it - not once, but each and every time.

Evil men are indeed 'roped' by their sins - binding them to the guilt and shame of it. Those who have said 'yes' to Jesus know they have done wrong, but also know what it is to be embraced by God's grace in response to our confession of that guilt and shame. If you have trouble 'controlling' yourself, pursuing things you know you should not be, there is a way of escaping those 'ropes'. The way is Jesus. We just need to ask for his help and then accept his grace. Grace isn't given so we can keep on sinning (pursuing our own way), but it is given because he loves us enough to not hold those sins over our heads.

Foolishness has a way of getting all of us from time to time. It is good news indeed that when we aren't wise enough to not pursue that course of action, God is right there, seeing the path we have chosen, and loving us too much to allow us to continue in that path. That is indeed good news. God's love doesn't 'mask' our sins - he still sees them but loves us too much to allow us to continue. We are 'seen', but his love sees something of great worth in each of us. Thank goodness he sees that worth, even when we don't. Just sayin!