Our Gift This Year: Open and Broken

Photo courtesy of sharemycraft.hgtv.com 

Let's face it - we all fall short, all the time.  But are we waiting, as if we were in airport security, for the "sin" wand to beep incrementally louder and louder until everyone is looking... before we actually admit it and open up our hearts?  Are we confessing that it was us?  Or are we lumping our sins in with the collective offering and sliding through airport security undetected; our unconfessed sin in someone else's "personal items" bowl?

Only the sin that is confessed and laid at the foot of the cross can be touched by the atoning blood of Christ.  Our confession, releases His power and His power releases us from the wage of sin that is, "death."

We know God wants our sin revealed so that we may be healed.  He wants it out in the open and our natural man broken in order that we might be desperate enough to repent, and humbled enough, to receive. For He longs to forgive us. He longs to redeem us from the pit, so that we might know He is God.

Can we ever gaze upon the cross without "confoundedness and shame?"  Think about Christ...the one without sin, out in the open and broken. A Savior altruistically loving us into an eternity...our freedom bought by what only the wage of our sin could pay.

 Just as Christ was open and broken before the world, we must be "open and broken" over our sin.  Without it, we cannot repent of our wrongdoings...and if we cannot repent (because we are not sorrowful enough for all of our dealings not leading to righteousness) then we cannot receive "the Greatest Gift the world has ever known." 

Praying we will all receive Him anew this season as we celebrate how

"He so loved the world..."

"O Come Let Us Adore Him"...Thank You Father that You love us unconditionally so that we never need suffer shame but can come to Your throne of grace unhindered and with repentant hearts that are soft and ready to receive Your forgiveness.  Please accept our gift this year of our open hearts and broken, surrendered selves  in order that Your love and Kingdom power be further released into our lives and the world. In Your Son's Precious Name We Pray, Amen.