Can I expect to find favor with God if I have secret sin in my life?

Question

I am talking about that deep dark little secret that no one knows about.The one that you think even God won't know about unless you tell Him.

I want to provide you with my interpretation of "secret sin" so everyone will understand the question.I know we all fail at times but thats not what this question is about.I have a little testimony here.I used to go into my prayer closet,knell down and pray.O I was so pious!I would pray long prayers,but there was some things that I didn't want to talk about with God.I really thought I could hide them.I wasn't trying to be a hypocrite.Its just that I was so ashamed of them.Please answer this question even if it no longer applies to you.

I repented of this long ago.And I have been forgiven,Praise God. My testimony was given that you might understand the question.

Don't you all realize that the testimony given was in the Past Tense and not in the Present Tense?

Answer 1

Interesting the way you word it all and being sure we KNOW it is past tense. As any christian knows, yoou cant hide anything from God. He knows everything, and can even read our mind. One thing the devil cannot do is read our mind, but he can see our reactions and our faces and emotions, so be careful what you allow the devil to see. amen Anyhow, we can hide nothing from God. HE doesnt want a part of our heart, He wants all of our hearts. When we wont submit fully to Him, giving Him our full heart and love and obedience, He can only partly bless us , as sin, even the hidden ones we think we can hide from God, are still sin and they seperate us from God until we repent and come back. Obedience still leads to blessing, it is the key to kingdom living here and to hold onto the gift of salvation til the end. Salvation is free, but holding on is conditional, as we must continue to love and obey God once we have come to Him. so, when we claim to be Chrsitian , but we still wont go fully to God, He can only bless us as much as we allow Him to.
God knows everything, and there is nothing we can hide from Him. IN the end, it all comes out, and the longer it is in, the longer it seperates us from the fullness of The HOly Spirit. This is how eaisly we throw away our free gift. sin seperates us from God. How can HE bless us if we wont let Him ALL the way in. Jesus sacrified unto death for us, and how can we do any less for Him than to give Him our ALL??????????????
The longer we hold on to sin, the harder it is to give it up, as it gets harder and harder to hear Gods voice. ANy time you give the devil an open door, he will run right in and cause darkessn, chaos and confusion that leads to more sin.
I am glad you worked thru your issue with God, and I pray many more will today just because of the question you asked.
God is blessing you.......by blessing others.......................

Answer 2

God knows all your sins even the ones you dont realize your committing so you cant hide anything from God.
God also knows the you are a foul wreatched sinner from birth, but I asume you mean after your saved an have an alien rightousness. And your asking like I am all better now but I want to hear what people say, so let me lay a question on you?
Are you trying to say I believe I am saved but there is an area of my life I am unwilling to surrener to God?
If you know its a sin and you havent ask God to take it away why wouldnt you do that, because you want to hang on to it?
Wouldnt you ask God to help you die to self more and more everyday so he can live more fully through you?
Give me more to work with here, buttom line if you know its a sin and you feel convicted about it you better start talking to him about it.
Salvation has an element called repentance where you die to sin and turn from it, and hate it not frolic in it. Did you repent of your sins when you were saved?
We will all fall into sin as long as we live, not dive in it head first and it should be a decreasing thing as Christ lives more fully through us every day.

Answer 3

Well, God knows all sins committed. It's certainly hard to talk about those "secret" ones though. But yes, yes you can. Repenting is the act of turning away from sin (whatever sin it may be) and not continuing to commit it. But the thing is that If you have Jesus Christ as your savior, your sins are paid for. Repentance comes AFTER accepting Him into your life. It's a fruit of the Spirit. So yes, you can certainly find favor with God as long as you are Born Again. Just pray that your relationship with Him grows and over time you will begin to despise and forget to do that sin. :)

Answer 4

hiya don!

well, i think that lots of Christians have this question in their hearts, to be honest.

if you believe what you are doing is sinful, then you need to find a professional, licensed Christian counselor and attend some counseling for a bit. here's why: having an impartial, third party who is focusing on you and your issue gives you the freedom to unburden your soul.

a counselor is a good thing - and good counselors will walk with you through your issue. you may only want to go to counseling for a few weeks or months - maybe longer.

the point is that having someone to work this out with can be the best thing you will ever do. sounds like you don't want to talk to your pastor - so a counselor is the next best option.

for your own heart, you need to work through this. you are not a hypocrite - you are human. if God is what you all believe he is, then he knows that, too.

Bright Blessings.

Answer 5

I think it comes down to a question of motive. The one thing I heard which brings this up is the issue of shame. Shame is a powerful inhibitor to any relationship, including or especially one's relationship with God. But then comes the counter issue of trust. Do you trust God? I openly admit there are many reasons for which I don't. But I still hold on to a belief there must be an ideal compassion for God to be God. It ironically is also the basis of my distrust. When I begin to doubt whether God is compassionate with humanity, it causes me to doubt whether God can be or is compassionate with me. Now I don't know what the context or your beliefs are. But I do know that if you're carrying a burden of shame, it it most likely because you doubt the compassion of God. Because if you have an unwavering trust in the compassion of God, you would have no reason to keep secrets from Him. So then you must ask what are you praying to and why. Until you have a solid belief (reliance) in the compassion of God, you won't be able to take your shame to Him. So ask yourself, "why do you believe in God? Do you have a motive which is beyond the purpose of seeking compassion? Is pride your motive? Pride as realized through the sense of exclusivity based on your definition of piousness. Are you substituting false piousness for penance? These are things that only you can answer. When you have, I suspect you won't have an issue with shame anymore.

Answer 6

I also have had something in my past that I was convinced God wouldn't or couldn't forgive, and it took a long time for Him to convince me that He had forgiven me.
Then I gradually started to realise that the non forgiveness was from me! not God. I just couldn't forgive myself.
Then gradually I accepted that by refusing to forgive myself I was - in effect - telling God that His forgiveness wasn't enough, and I was throwing God's forgiveness back at him as not good enough......
This realisation horrified me, so I asked forgiveness for thinking this way, have put it all behind me, and whenever the memories of it come back, just tell myself that it doesn't exist, God has removed that sin from existence, and I'm stressing myself about nothing at all.
It can be so hard to forgive yourself.

God didn't choose "perfect" people to do some of His greatest work,
Moses was a murderer, David was an adulterer and murderer, just two as an example, and what great men for God they became!!!!!!!! because they asked forgiveness from God, and also forgave themselves......

Answer 7

1 John 2:1

Answer 8

We are all human and imperfect. But God knows us better than we know ourselves. So it is our chance to lay it all out for the Lord, and leave the sins at the foot of the cross. We must forsake cherished unconfessed sin, forsake the discomfort of bondage, abandon deep rooted bitterness and hurt, to start the healing process through Jesus (for in His stripes, we are healed - Isaiah 53:5, 1 Peter 2:24 KJV). There is no greater time than now to turn up the flame of prayer through the Holy Ghost. God knows we cannot live life without it and Him.

God Bless You richly brother!

Answer 9

You can't find favor with God with sin in your life. No matter how secret we think the sin is, God knew about it before we even thought about doing it. Luckily we serve a forgiving God, but first we have to ask for forgiveness. Satan is the one who makes us ashamed of what we have done, but I always try to remember, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No need to be ashamed, God already knows.

Answer 10

I think there are sins in every ones life that have been pushed back so far in their minds that they have become secret even to them.
We deny those things that are unthinkable and yet God knows they are there.
I guess the question would be if we have truly forgotten that secret sin, are we forgiven of it?
I would certainly pray that we are.