Ezra 9:6
I prayed, “O my God, I am utterly ashamed. I blush to lift up my face to you. For our sins are piled higher than our heads,
and our guilt has reached to the heavens.”
The children of Israel had not kept
themselves separate from the people around them. They had intermarried with the people around
them and embraced their gods. They had
defiled themselves and defied God who had clearly told them to do neither. When Ezra discovered what they had done, he
was driven to his knees before God.
Ezra blushed in God’s presence. He was ashamed of how God’s people had
conducted themselves. He was embarrassed
by their behavior. I wonder when the
last time was that we blushed in the presence of God. Have you ever been embarrassed and ashamed of
the behavior of others? What about your
own behavior?
A careful reading of God’s Word reveals
sin in us. I suspect many of us don’t
like spending very much time reading and studying the Word because we are
afraid of what we may find there. We
don’t scrutinize our behavior and thought lives because we know that we will
come up short. We take the low road
instead of the high road because it requires so much less of us.
The problem is the way to heaven is always
the high road. The high road is the road
to holiness. God commands that we travel
on it. There is no condemnation for
those who do it. There is guilt, shame,
and embarrassment for those who don’t.
Which road are you traveling on today?
Blushing is a good thing if it moves us to
pray for others and ourselves. It is
good for us to recognize and acknowledge the sin that plagues us. It is good for us to approach God and seek
forgiveness whenever sin is found. It is
good for us to pray for those who can’t, or won’t, pray for their own sin. Sin is an abomination to God and He will
judge it wherever it is found. We will
reap what we sow. Pray while there is
still time to pray.
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