Monday October 29, 2012

Weekly Challenge

Resolve this week, to stop covering up your mistakes and sins. Be honest and upfront and confess them immediately to those who are involved.

 

Read Leviticus 23:23-27

 

It astounds me that even young children, who we think don’t know right from wrong, still try to cover up their sins. I’ve personally witnessed my own children blaming others, lying about their misdemeanours and seeking to hide or cover up their sins. As adults we have become experts at covering up our sins.

 

Adam and Eve tried to cover their sin by lying and blaming each other.  Since that time we have tried relentlessly to pass the buck, to blame others and to hide behind our shame behind that figurative fig leaf.

 

Yom Kippur literally means the Day of Covering. Yom is Hebrew for ‘day’ and obviously Kippur means covering. It’s not a type of fish as some would expect. But it’s not just a covering. It’s about covering up our sins, our mistakes, our bad choices in a positive and good way, not a bad and negative way!

 

Yom Kippur was a holy day. In fact, together with the feast of Trumpets it formed the two holiest days called the High Holy Days. This day was a day of repentance, of resting and fasting and standing before the Lord to have one’s sins covered.

 

Let me encourage you to think about all the mistakes you’ve made, all the dumb things you’ve done, all the sins you’ve tried to cover up. Wouldn’t you like to have God deal with them and cover them up once for all?  Wouldn’t you just love to have peace in your heart and quietness in your mind? Wouldn’t you be thrilled to be able to stop beating yourself up and berating yourself? Wouldn’t you love to swap the self hatred for self love and acceptance?

 

Yom Kippur will show you the way forward. Turn to God and find covering in Him.

 

Prayer:

Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.

 

Adoration:

 

Confession:

 

Thanks:

 

 

Supplication:

¥ Pray that God would bring a conviction upon all believers throughout the western world to believe the entire word of God from Genesis to Revelation. Pray that the spirit of apathy that doesn’t care about one’s beliefs beyond the gospels would be eradicated and replaced with belief in the entire word of God.

¥ Pray that God would grant repentance where needed to each person in your own congregation through His Holy Spirit.

 

My Additional Prayer Points.

1/.

 

2/.

 

3/.