Scars are a reminder left behind of something that happened in the past. I have accumulated several scars throughout my life. Most of them are rather small, like one on my pointer finger which I cut with a knife while whittling a piece of wood, or the one on my knee when I fell into a nail that wasn’t pounded all the way in. But my biggest scar is one that is rarely seen, because it is on the top of my head. I was young when this one happened, and foolish, and for some reason I had crawled underneath a barbed wire fence. I made it through the first time unscathed, but on my return trip I didn’t crawl low enough to the ground, and as a result a barb from the wire cut into the skin of my head, tearing the skin immediately. I then stood up quickly but as soon as I did I felt a liquid dripping onto my hands. It was blood. I can remember this event like it was yesterday, even though it happened when I was six years old. It took nine stitches to close my wound, and while those stitches were in I needed to make sure that I didn’t do anything to pull those stitches out and reopen the wound. Weeks later the stitches were removed, but I was left with a visible scar on the very top of my head.
Years later, that scar is still there, a constant reminder of my foolish mistake. But you know what? I have never made that same mistake again. I have made other mistakes, but I have never crawled under a barbed wire fence so foolishly again.
We all make mistakes. It is not something that we necessarily want to do, but what matters is that if we do we do not make that mistake again. “Experience is a good teacher” is a phrase that I have often heard, which is true if you take that experience and learn and improve upon it. We all have sinned, but in order to move on and improve your faith you need to recognize what it is that you did wrong. After you have done this you are then able to work on making certain that you do not make that mistake a second time. But you must be able to admit your sins.
James 5:16 “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
Something that many people suffer from is the inability or unwillingness to ask for help, as well as the unwillingness to admit or recognize fault. They want to believe that they can do everything on their own and that they do not need the help or assistance from anyone else. Well I have news for these types of people: no matter how hard you try you will never be able to get to Heaven without admitting your faults and asking the Lord Jesus for His help and forgiveness.
Proverbs 28:13 “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”
As we mature in the word of God we will begin to understand more and more. But if we fail at some point, if we reach a weak part of our faith and do sin, we need to immediately have the humility to acknowledge our misdeeds and humble ask for forgiveness. After that we need to work on never doing that again. That sin is a scar in our spiritual life, a reminder of our need for Christ’s mercy, and motivation to not allow ourselves to make that same mistake twice.
Romans 10:8-10 “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
When you learn to ride a bike you may fall down. You make crash into something, tip over and cut your knee and bruise your elbows, but you need to get back up. You need to throw on those bandages and get right back in your bike again and go until you do it right. We may sin at different moments of our lives, but you need to get up and confess those mistakes to the Lord.
A scar is a reminder of an accident, and while we do not want to sit and dwell on our past sins, we need to remember that we are a sinner. We need to look at those spiritual scars learn from them, so that they don’t open back up again.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 