40 Day Journey - Day 4

March 15
Fast That Which Is Impure
 
Psalm 66:16-20
Come and listen all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he did for me. For I cried out to him for help, praising him as I spoke.  If I had not confessed my sin in my heart, my Lord would not have listened, but God did listen! He paid attention to my prayer. Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer and did not withdraw his unfailing love from me.
 
    In this Psalm we find a key for an audience before God - a pure heart. The Psalmist is speaking to all those who fear God. This Psalm is written to us, those who know and believe in the one true God. It is a song of testimony of what God has done and of His unfailing love.
    As the Psalmist pours out his soul in a cry for help he does so with praise coming forth from his lips "I cried out to Him for help, praising Him as I spoke." In this process of pleading and praising, the realization of hidden sin comes to the foreground of his thoughts- "If I would not have confessed the sin in my heart, my Lord would not have listened."
    As we read this Psalm we become amazed at the love of our Heavenly Father for we learn that He desires to listen to our prayers and out of His love for us He reveals that which is hindering us from a close relationship with Him - our sins.
    It may only be a little bit of a challenge to hide our wrongs from our fellow peers, but it is impossible to hide them from God. The beauty of this psalm is God's willingness to hear us, bless and forgive.  
 
1 John 1:5-10 
 5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

Fast today those thoughts or desires that are impure and not pleasing to God and when crying out to God don't get disturbed over some conviction in your heart about something that you have done wrong, but confess it in your heart before God, because He desires to hear your prayer and to share his unfailing love with you.