Every Sin Covered
Translated from a sermon by Fr Daoud Lamei
Let us give thanks to the gracious and merciful God for He has covered us…
It is God’s will for us to thank Him, and in particular for covering us. How many of us truly acknowledge that God covers us? And what does it mean to be covered?
There are many meanings to covering. Covering us when we are in distress, when we are in danger, when hope is lost. But the most important of these is covering our sins.
Sometimes we overlook that our sins are indeed covered, but if we ask God to continually cover our sin, we remember the price of our sins. Believe me, if we all knew each other’s secrets, no one would be able to love another. No one would have any respect for another.
Who knows all our secrets, all our weakness, all our sin and loves us the same? That is our Lord! Covering us is all in His Nature. He lifts us all up before others, because we are already covered.
The church instils the richness of this phrase from the very start of our prayers – for You have covered us. Only Christ sees all the shame. If people saw even a quarter of the shame of one another, they could not stand to look at one another. How many of us thank God for covering us? For all the sins that were covered, and will be covered so that in the eyes of men there is no sin remaining.
Shouldn’t we thank God for covering us? Think of someone that took the fall for you even just once, would you not feel indebted to that person? How much more should we thank the One that covers all our sin?
For in the time of trouble, He shall hide me in His pavilion
Psalm 27:5
I was like a naked man that finally found covering from the shame of nakedness, this is how the Lord covers my sin. Humankind is always being covered by God. When Adam and Eve committed the first sin and saw their nakedness, God immediately covered them.
He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea
Micah 7:19
God stomps on the shame of sin, takes it throws it in the water and it is no more. There is no sin. No matter what it is, it is gone. You will not find it again. We’re happy now that He has paid the price and the sin is gone. No matter the sin or how bad it is. There is nothing left to hold on to with sin. He has mercy, He tramples on our sins and they are gone forever.
When we consider this in light of God’s will – does this now make sense? When we thank Him for everything it is to acknowledge that He covers us. For everything, we have a reason to thank Him. Believe me, you thank Him for the problems, the tribulations, the hardships but above all, we must thank Him for covering us.
Thank God for tribulation and hardships alike. Even though this does not make sense to thank for these things, but through prayer, it makes sense that this is all a gift, a spiritual gift that we are eternally thankful for.
When we give thanks for hardships and tribulations, then we are blessed for these are the most difficult to give thanks for. Those tribulations are what pushed us to go through the narrow gate. Without which, we may not have found it.
For the spiritual being, the hardest time for any person become the most glorious. When I truly believe in this, I can honestly say to my Lord, “I know You are not capable of any wrongdoing and You do not make mistakes. You are the Benefactor, there is no blemish within You. When You give me hardship and tribulation it is for my good. When You don’t answer my prayers the way I want You to, it is even better. When I feel that You are punishing me, that is what is required for my salvation. I could not be saved by any other means.”
…and this in itself, becomes reason to give thanks.
When the day comes and you feel that He is being harsh, you can look back and remember that this is for your good. He is the physician of our souls and He will do what is best for the human condition. In the end, thanksgiving will be our complete nature, perfected in Him. This is God’s complete will – that thanksgiving in all conditions becomes normal.
There will be trials, but we need to learn how to apply these words in our actions. Every hour that you are awake, thank God at least once. It won’t take a second. With every action, thank God. When you drink water, Thank God. When you get in the car, thank God. When you open the door of your house, thank God. When you get to your destination, thank God. In this, thanksgiving becomes the basis of every action. We begin to see how much of our shame He truly covers, sometimes even before we realise it.
And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him
Colossians 3:17
Thanksgiving is the ultimate command. Everything you do and say is covered in thanksgiving.