God Understands

God Understands

Bible Reading: Psalm 38:1-22

We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

We may know the anguish of feeling like we deserve the suffering in our life. Sins carry their own painful consequences, many of them in the form of physical disease and discomfort. It’s a terrible thing to realize that our pain may be discounted by others because we brought it upon ourselves. We may have encountered self-righteous people who look down on us in our pain, as if to say, “Well, that should teach you! I bet you’ll never do that again!” They don’t seem to understand the power the addiction holds over us.

David prayed, “O LORD, don’t rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your rage! Your arrows have struck deep, and your blows are crushing me. Because of your anger, my whole body is sick; my health is broken because of my sins. My guilt overwhelms me—it is a burden too heavy to bear. My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins. I am bent over and racked with pain. All day long I walk around filled with grief. . . . I am on the verge of collapse, facing constant pain. But I confess my sins; I am deeply sorry for what I have done” (Psalm 38:1-6, 17-18).

We can call out to God in the midst of our pain. He has compassion on us, even if we brought the pain upon ourselves. We can admit that we’re still on the verge of sin in the same prayer that says how truly sorry we are. Such is the nature of addiction. People may never understand, but God does.

As we confess, we need to admit that we are always on the verge of falling.