This is taken from Psalm 19: 12-13  Who perceives his unintentional sins? Cleanse me from my hidden faults. Moreover, keep your servant from willful sins; do not let them rule me. Then I will be blameless and cleansed from blatant rebellion.

Willful or presumptuous sins are sins committed in a proud and knowing way. None of us are exempt from the danger of sinning in this manner.

What are the things that characterize willful sinning?:

When we know better than to deliberately sin

When friends have observed us sinning and warned us

When God himself has warned us

When we have warned others against the same sins

When we plan and relish our sin.  We must recognize that habitual sin has both a pattern and a progression

Sin goes from just passing temptation to entertaining sinful thoughts (lack of awareness and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.)

We choose to dwell on these sinful thoughts. (hidden faults; are we really aware of what we are allowing?)

Dwelling on these thoughts produces a desire to act on them

We then plan to act on these thoughts

Once we have a plan, we look for opportunity to act out

When we act out, this will most likely lead to repeated episodes of acting out

We then find ourselves delighting in our sin (presumptuous and willful sin)

Once we delight in our sin we tend to look for new and various ways of finding gratification

As we continue to indulge in sinful behavior it becomes habit

Habit leads to idolatry; sin demands to be served rather than God

Idolatry leads to sacrifice; we will do things we never thought we would do regardless of negative consequences

Willful and habitual sinning leads to slavery and addiction

As we progressively go down this path the Holy Spirit, and hopefully our conscience, says, “No – STOP!” At every point in this progression we are given the way of escape by God if we will choose obedience and take it (1 Corinthians 10:13). If we choose not to escape we end up in slavery. At this point we must ask ourselves, “are we really saved?”  (1 John 3:6-9).

(1 Corinthians 10:13) No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.

(1John 3:6-9) Everyone who remains in him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen him or known him. 7  Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8  The one who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works.  9  Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because his seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God.

The purpose here is not to put anyone under condemnation but it is rather a sobering wake-up call to examine our behaviors in the light of the Word of God. We know from our own experience that we are experts at deceiving ourselves and we have a powerful enemy in the devil who is quite willing to speed us along the downward path.

It is of critical importance that we make the time to read and study the Word of God. It is God’s Word that renews our minds. I think we also misunderstand grace. Grace is not only for forgiveness but it is even more the appropriation of God’s supernatural power to help us set the boundaries in the proper places. It is grace that allows us to live in godly ways that we never believed were possible.

As a bit of personal testimony…

Developing a godly habit of spending consistent time in the Word (reading and studying) first thing each morning has really changed my life. I had not really understood the power of the Word to change my thinking. It is the tool God has given us to renew our minds and I am astonished at how it is changing my thinking, my heart and my behavior.

Adapted from Enduring Word the free Bible Commentary from Pastor David Guzik