Our hearts are deceitful. Sometimes people are covering up their sins when they think they are dealing with their sins.

Below are some indications to see if you are covering up your sins rather than dealing with them biblically with each point we have examples provided:

1.) You start downplaying the sin. That is, you see your sins less than how Scripture describe it. For instance, you have road rage and threatened someone. Biblically you have committed murder in your heart. But instead of interpreting your sins bibically you go ahead and say what you did was no big deal to the officer who pulled you over.

2.) You don’t let others know your sin who have the right to know. For instance, you cheated on a test and you don’t tell the school but you want the person who caught you to keep it to themselves. Or you stole something from someone but won’t let them know. Or you are a seminarian and violated a serious offense against the student’s code of conduct but resist from letting it get reported to the seminary.

3.) You worry more about what people would think than what God thinks. For instance, you get arrested and are more worried what your church will think about you when they see the newspaper. Or you are in sin, the church removed you from choir but you are more worried about what questions people will ask more than what God will ask about your sins.

4.) You start lying. Think of the things people make up to cover up their sins. People can tell unbelievable stories of what happened. Have you seen pedophiles getting caught in the documentaries “To catch a Predator?”

5.) You start shifting the blame. For instance, an adulterous husbands blames the wife for his adultery that the wife has not been good in bed. Or a disciplined church member starts blaming the person who discover their sins more than seeing the blame of their own sins being brought upon themselves.

6.) You start attacking other people’s character. You start questioning the motives of those who confront you. You start saying that the person was always out to destroy you. You start telling people that the person who confronted you were not loving, Pharisees etc.

7.) You say others have the same sins too. Say a guy got caught looking at pornography. The defense? “Everyone lusts and have committed adultery in their hearts.” Sure people struggle with lusts. But not everyone feed the flesh and make provisions of feeding their evil desire. Also, don’t forget two wrongs don’t make a right.

8.) You want people to give you self-pity instead of help to stop the sin. You want people to “take your side” to the point that you don’t want people to speak to you about God’s take on your sins. You try to get your biblical counselors to be soft on you rather than the serious business of mortifying your sins.

9.) You have a worldly sorrow that leads to death. You didn’t take your sins to the Lord in confessing it and repenting. You are still in your guilt and it keeps on coming back. You should be taking it to the cross but you keep covering it with the manners described above. But guilt is objective, because there’s a real God whose law you violated and He invented your conscience to warn you. So the worldly sorrow leads to despair. Suicidal tendencies, etc.

Brothers and sisters, we can all fool ourselves that we are dealing with our sins when we are covering it up. You want good news? God made a way for us. He doesn’t want us to carry the heavy load any longer. Surrender your sins to Jesus. Surrender your life to the Savior. Christ came to die for the sins of those who would place their trust in Him as Lord and Savior. He will forgive you. He will cleanse you. He will work in you and never forsake you. Turn to Him! Cry out to Him for grace, even now!