Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. 13 Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless,
and I shall be innocent of great transgression.
and I shall be innocent of great transgression.
- Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...
Oh, that’s right; we need to wrap up the whole presumptuous sins context.
We’ve checked out the Merriam Webster’s definition; now let’s look at my favorite study tool, the Hebrew/Greek concordance.
The first definition is arrogance, so that confirms that. Hold on; there’s more.
It goes on to say “proceeding from excess of confidence; applied to things such as hope! Now that’s interesting! Sorry, but that’s about as clear as mud so let me do some research. Don’t you just love Google!
I just plugged in how an excess of confidence differs from hope and here’s what I found so far: “The theological virtue defined as the desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God's help.”
I’m dancing in my seat like a little kid bursting with excitement, just screaming silently by raising my hand because I think I got it without having to dig and delve deeper: My Teacher said "go ahead," so my hand is coming down to write what I’ve realized, from my heart to yours, of course.
See, hope in Christianity includes God’s help when the follower – not the fan – calls upon the Author of Hope, whereas an excess confidence puts self first in that hope! Does that make sense?
Let me give you a very simplistic example. I just asked Him for one. Let’s take a toddler, for example, our little Bryden, or you can put one of yours in this example, too. His famous words about this very thing squeeze my heart with a giggle any time I remember the many instances where I was doing something for him – often out of love but also out of convenience for time’s sake, if you know what I mean – and he would stop me in my tracks and say emphatically: “I’ll do it myself!”
So I’d step back and allow him to do it himself … until he would get so frustrated that his frustration drove him to either get mad, or finally give in and ask for help.
Watching him struggle was symbolic to us as adults when we venture to attempt to do something, go somewhere, or even communicate with someone with the attitude of doing it ourselves and our way! It’s only when we let go and remember Who and Why we do what we do that we can grab hold of the hand of the Author of Hope, and the tendency towards a presumptuous sin leaves …
Let’s continue for just a bit more through the Hebrew concordance for another facet of presumptuous: “Unduly confident, irreverent with respect to reverent things.”
STOP!
Wow, I just thought of another example: can’t ritualistic things that we do in the church fall into this category if we’re not careful? I hear you asking for an example, so at the risk of stepping on toes, let’s tread lightly:
How do we approach communion? Is it ritualistically or relationally? How do we participate in the worship part of the service? Is it with our whole hearts, or just our minds? And when it ‘s time for the message, are we listening with our whole hearts, taking notes, or using whatever learning style that helps us to absorb the most, or are we tuning out, on our cell phones, on Facebook, or any other form of social media?
Wow, I had no idea a presumptuous sin could be so …. You fill in that last word! Join me tomorrow for more. :)
Writing from my heart to yours,
- Nana Holds!
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