Police Devotional
“For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.” (Psalm 5:3)
One of the most disgusting things you’ll do as a cop is go into a roach-infested residence. When you first walk into a “roach motel,” it looks and smells filthy. You can almost guess that it has roaches. As you talk with the people there, especially in the kitchen, you see one, then another. They’re on the counter, in the cupboards, and on the wall, crawling around and waving their antennas back and forth. You learn to keep moving your feet while you’re in there, so you’re less likely to leave with “passengers.”
The Bible doesn’t mention roaches specifically, but they do provide us an idea of how God is about sin—God doesn’t take sin lightly. Just as roaches are disgusting, sin is disgusting to God. That’s why Psalm 5:3 says, “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.”
Imagine looking for an apartment at a certain complex. The rental agent shows you a suite. The rooms all look nice. Then you open a kitchen cupboard and see a roach sitting there. You tell the agent, “This place has roaches!” What would you do if he replied, “Well, maybe one or two?” You couldn’t get out of there fast enough! First of all, if it has one that you can see, it probably has more that you can’t see. Second, when the agent tells you that it only has one or two, he’s not taking the problem seriously.
If you’ve received Jesus as Saviour, your sin-debt is eternally forgiven. However, sin can still “infest” your life and do awful damage, so you need to take sin seriously. Sin displeases a holy God, and it what put Jesus on the cross. Unconfessed sin makes believers wrong before God and is unacceptable in a Christian’s life.
People may say, “Well, we sin every day,” as if that is an excuse to harbor sin. “Since we sin every day, we might as well enjoy it.” Well, sin is still disgusting to God. Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” Even one known, unconfessed sin will hurt the fellowship between you and your Saviour. You can’t just let sinful behavior stay in your life, any more than you can let “just one roach” remain in your residence.
Worse yet, unconfessed known sin hardens your heart and invites more sin—almost like an infestation—in your life and the lives of those around you. After Adam ate the forbidden fruit, he not only was guilty of sin, but his heart was hardened against God. When God asked him, “Hast thou eaten of the tree?” (Genesis 3:11), Adam replied by accusing God, “The woman WHOM THOU GAVEST TO BE WITH ME [capitals mine], she gave me of the tree.” (Genesis 3:12). One sin led to more sin.
You’ve probably seen white powder along the baseboards of some residences. That’s roach powder. When people use roach powder, they’re saying, “We won’t let the roaches win. We’ll fight them.” God’s “roach powder” for sin in a Christian’s life is confession. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9). If you find a roach in your home, kill it. If you need to use roach powder, use it. You may need to use it more than once, but keep using it so the roaches won’t dominate in your home. Likewise, if you have some known sin, confess it. Ask God for help to stop. If you still struggle with it, keep confessing and praying for help. Don’t let the “sin” roaches win. God, by his grace, can help you, so that sin won’t “infest” and dominate your life. Get into the habit of confessing sin and trusting God to help you win victory over it: “my heart trusted in him, and I am helped.” (Psalm 28:7).
If you’ve never seen in the Bible how to have an eternal home in heaven by receiving Jesus as Saviour, please click “How do I go to Heaven?” on the sidebar.
Brian Miller 6/17/2015
Cleveland Baptist Church 4431 Tiedeman Road, Brooklyn, Ohio 44144 216/671-2822