Hidden Sin Isn't Really Hidden

What a messed up nation we are!  First, we have websites that will help match a married individual with another married person with whom you can have an affair and keep it secret from your spouses (sorry, not going to provide a link for this one!).  Now we have iPhone apps that aid in the covering of your affair.

Yet time and again I counsel people who have been sexually unfaithful and engaged in sex outside of marriage, and every time there is damage - to the person who had the affair and to the spouse (or future spouse) who discovers it.

We've all heard the stories of adultery.  Yet when it comes to ourselves, we think we can get away with it!  We think we can hide it.  How foolish we are!

Jesus clearly says,

"For nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing concealed that will not be made known and brought to light." (Luke 8:17)

Even if a person somehow successfully keeps his/her affair secret, (or porn addiction, or gambling problem, or alcoholism, or inner pride, or gaming addiction, or cutting, or whatever your "secret" sin might be), God knows and that person knows.  The person living with a secret sin can never be "fully himself" with anyone else, which therefore keeps him or her distanced from others (his spouse, her church family, his co-workers, her college friends, etc.).  And the more emotionally distanced a person is from others, the more likely he or she is to continue to engage in "secret" sin.

Here's the good news/bad news of this matter:

The Bad News:  Your sin will be found out, probably in this lifetime.

The Good News: You can decide how it is discovered.

• If you keep hiding it, you have chosen to let yourself be embarrassed when the sin is revealed.  Then you will suffer a damaged reputation, a lack of trust, and a complete devastation of your emotions, relationships, spiritual walk, and more.
• If you choose to expose the sin yourself, you will still suffer some of the pain of other's shock and the process of healing, but the embarrassment is far less, the recovery much quicker, and trust is much easier to rebuild.

So which are you going to choose?

• Are you going to keep hiding your sin, employing technology and lies to mask your failings, and suffer the embarrassment when it comes to light?
• Or are you going to man-up (or woman-up) and confess your "hidden" sin?

Because your sin isn't nearly as hidden as you think it is.

Credit given to Pete Wilson's excellent blog for the info on the TigerText app. Photo from stock.xchange.

Posted via email from erin bird's web nest