“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. Isaiah 1:18
Who hears your deepest, darkest secrets? Who knows all about your biggest failures and regrets? Who has seen the “real” you? Only the people you’re sure will love you anyway, right?
See, there is a connection between honesty and grace. If I am not certain, absolutely positive, that a relationship is founded on grace, I won’t risk total honesty, whether it’s with a friend a family member or even my husband. The possibility of rejection and the threat of exposure are too much. I’m guessing you are the same way.
This affects our relationship with God, too. We have a mental grasp that He is loving and gracious, but until that gets hold of us at our core we hide from Him just like Adam and Eve did. Even though He invites us to come to Him dozens of times over and promises us rest and acceptance and love when we do, we still struggle with being honest with God.
Maybe it conjures up images of an interrogation room with bright lights forcing us to a sweat-drenched confession. Maybe it’s more like a swath of red marks when we’ve tried, only to fail miserably. Or maybe we hear God in a voice that sounds far too much like someone else, someone we could never please or satisfy.
Genuine honesty with God isn’t like that at all. In fact, it is a supreme expression of our faith in His goodness. It underscores our utter trust in His boundless grace. It demonstrates a desire for deep intimacy with Him in our willingness to turn loose of anything and everything that might stand in the way of that.
In Isaiah, God offers one of His many invitations.
“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18
It’s an invitation to honesty and it’s backed with a promise of grace. An invitation worth accepting.