Keep Your Servant from Willful Sins

We need God's Word to help us discern our errors. God's Word is the plumb line/the standard by which we are to measure our thoughts, words, and actions. To sin is to miss the mark (set by God). Here David asked God to forgive him and keep him from sinning. He pointed out two kinds of sins: hidden/secret faults (sins that are unknown to others and/or to ourselves) and willful/presumptuous sins (sins that are committed with deliberate defiance, presuming to know better than what God says/thinks or presuming that it is no big deal).

We need to pray and ask God to forgive us and to show us our hidden faults. Since sometimes we're unaware of our sins, we fail to confess and repent. Psalm 139:23-24 is a perfect prayer for this,  "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

David humbly recognized his need for God to help keep him away from sinning willfully and deliver him from the power/dominion of sin. We must do the same/pray for God's help. Never think you would never do or could never do "such a thing" as so and so have done. We all are not infallible. And pride (including spiritual pride) is sin. "It appears that presumptuous sins arise from carelessness with God and His word, and carelessness with the needs of others. We can also be lured into these sins by the willful disobedience of others. Whatever the origin, over time our carelessness leads to callousness, and calloused hearts lead to arrogance or insolence towards God and others." (Tony Reinke) 

Prayer: Abba Father, I need You every moment of my life! Thank You for Your amazing grace and forgiveness! Please forgive me for all my sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Please keep me from sinning. Please empower me to live victoriously over sins, self/flesh, temptations, assaults from Satan and pollutions from the world. Please help me be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's conviction and be quick to confess and repent. Please enable me to hide Your Word in my heart and live according to Your Word so that I may not sin against You. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.