“Life would like a box of tissues, you never know what you’re going to cough up.”

Okay, that’s not from Forrest Gump but it is allergy season here in KY and it feels like everything is blooming at once. This year, even the usually unaffected are struggling with watery eyes, runny noses, and coughing, lots of coughing. Even with modern medicines it rules over us. And, while this pushes the boundary of TMI, we must admit the coughing and sneezing bring up some unpleasant realities, and we can’t help looking.

Today’s Sunday’s Struggles edition of Morning Minutes in the Bible on An American Missionary returns once more to Psalm 19 and David’s beautiful expression about God’s word. Yesterday we noted how the unpleasant reality of sin and our finitude ( that is our human limitations) bring up some things we would rather not see – the need for God’s mercy even when we don’t know what we did wrong. “Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.” (v12). Only an arrogant fool would claim total knowledge of God and his own sin. Yet repentance is necessary so we can’t ignore the sins we aren’t even aware of committing. Like David we have to put them in God’s hands and trust Him. But we still struggle with accepting God’s acquittal of those hidden sins. God’s word brings it up so let’s be honest enough to see it for what it is and work to grow in knowledge. But know this – we will never know them all!

Worse than our struggle with hidden sins is our struggle with known sins. In verse 13 David asks God to keep him back “from presumptuous sins”. Some versions say “willful”, others say “deliberate”, and they all indicate a self-willed determination to defy God and “do our own thing.” These are the things we do when we know what God wants, but judge His will less important than the gunk we coughed into a tissue. David was pleading with God to let His word restrain him instead of being controlled by his own willful sins. Turning to God and deliberately choosing to accept the direction of His word is the only path to being blameless through His acquittal.

Today is Easter Sunday, a special day to many who spend the other 51 Sundays unconcerned about God. May their hearts be turned to seek Him fully! However, before we become too judgmental about those who seek Him only once a year, let’s remember how our hearts are filled with gunk (seen and unseen) and put God’s word in charge of helping us cough it out. Then, and only then, can we receive acquittal from all our sins and be acceptable in His sight (Psalm 19:14).