It amazes me how personal the word of God can be. Each Bible study time can offer a wealth of wisdom, either with a keen insight or directions for righteous living. It is such an adventure.

Recently, seeking to grow, I asked God to show me my sins. Nothing jumped into mind. How much sinning could I do, after all, I run a business from home and I am around Christians 90 percent of the time. I know we are all sinners so it wasn't that I thought I was so saintly that I was sinless. But mentally running through a number of sins, I checked each one off the list. I don't do the biggies like murder and such but I was sure there were many sins in my life. Perhaps, my sins were manini, which doesn't negate the need for confession. Maybe, I had grown so much that God was fine-tuning my life versus teaching big lessons on the basics. Then, bam! God showed me a sin that he has shown me before! Repeatedly, he has brought scripture to light that speaks of "let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth," and "let not the sun go down on your anger" and now this scripture.

Psalm 50:20-21; "You sit; you speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son. These things you have done, and I have kept silence; you thought that I was like yourself, but I will rebuke you, and set in order before your eyes."

These words brought to mind the importance of confessing sins and really walking away from sins. I have been living a sad cycle. I would repent, even confessing to family and friends. Then, I would "forget" about my sin and slowly drift back into being offended and judgmental. I would fall back into slamming my brother and others. In the world's eyes I have grounds to stand on, I know, I have friends who agree with me — isn't that validation that I am right? No!

The scripture in Psalms says not only to refrain from slandering my brother, but also that God will rebuke me. Rebuke me? Suddenly I was shaken from my cocoon of complacency and realizing that even if I slammed family members and lightning didn't immediately zap me that God wasn't happy. Wow, talk about a wake-up call! I don't believe in living a Christian life by fear, but the thought of disappointing God and making him angry hurt my heart. God keeps telling me to quit taking up offenses and I keep doing it. Talk about thought-provoking!

So, I praised God for an answer to prayer (showing me this sin — I know I have others). I confessed my sins to God and asked for forgiveness. I am joyful that God doesn't give up on me and that he gives me more grace than I give others.