In my daily, early morning prayer time, I talk to my Father from my heart and present my body anew upon the altar of service and worship as a living sacrifice (Rom.12:1). I always ask Him to cleanse me from anything that offends Him and defiles me.
I will never forget the day when engaged in this very thing, I kept hearing a voice in my spirit prompting me to add: “And from all pecadilloes.” At first I ignored it, because I really wasn’t sure exactly what pecadilloes meant. Although I had heard of the word, I didn’t know if I could define it specifically. I probably would have offered what I thought to be good synonyms, such as idiosyncrasies, peculiarities, or even oddities.
But the urge to pray it out loud became stronger. So, feeling rather silly, I finally spoke the words: “And from all pecadilloes!”
Immediately, I felt a sense of approval, so I went at once to look it up in the dictionary to see exactly what it was that I had just prayed! It means:
“A slight, trifling sin,” and one of its synonyms is foibles. My next move, of course, was to check the definition of foible, which is “a personal weakness, a character fault.”
I think most of us would consider something “trifling” as petty, minor, and of no real consequence. After all, we’re only human—right? But it was obvious to me that the Holy Spirit was seeking to bring me to a higher level of awareness for spiritual cleansing, holiness, purity, and accountability. I have to confess, that in the weeks following, I kept falling into some of those pecadilloes, but as soon as I realized it, I sought the Lord earnestly for cleansing and grace.
Please do not misinterpret my emphasis on accountability as endorsing a works-oriented salvation. Rather, true accountability increases purity and humility, and God expects this from all His servants. Micah 6:8 attests:
“He has showed you, O man…” (This is a good place to insert your name, such as “Sharon”), “…what is good; and what does the lord require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”
I believe in my heart that God is dealing with many of His people in this manner. You may be one of them who has not fully understood what God is doing in your spirit. I’m not talking about overt, gross sins that the Bible clearly prohibits. It’s “the little foxes” that we are dealing with, that “spoil the vine” and mar our fruit. (SS.2:15). God is requiring us to walk in a new level of consecration, and He is not going to let the so-called little things, the pecadilloes and foibles, get by anymore.
The Water of the Word
As I meditated on this throughout that day, the Holy Spirit led me in the Scriptures to confirm His word to my heart. Paul said that believers are “cleansed with the washing of the water by the Word” (Eph.5:26). These are some main verses the Lord gave to me:
“Let us…” (personal responsibility) “lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and run with patience the race that is set before us,” (Hebrews 12:1).
Please note the definite article “the” before sin—the sin—the pecadillo which does so easily beset us. The term “beset” in the original Greek text refers to “something that surrounds one and hinders him from running the race unencumbered.”
I liken this to the time when my boys were toddlers, always hanging onto my skirt. They were just two years apart, and it was hard to get anything done around the house when they were awake and were constantly pulling at my clothes for attention. I was beset! I had to wait until nap time to get anything substantial done.
In the same way, the sin—the pecadillo—we have not put to sleep, so to speak, will continue to beset us and hamper our progress and growth in God. As already stated, the responsibility to doing the laying aside lies with us—not the Holy Spirit. He will prompt us, convict us, show us what we need to do, but we must “lay it aside.” The Greek word means “to wear or carry no longer.”
This work of the Holy Spirit upon the hearts of men was expressed in the writings of Moses and David, and He led me to these passages as I searched His Word for more confirmation. Moses prayed, “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance” (Ps.90:8).
We know what Moses’ public sins were: He slew the Egyptian (Exodus 2:12); he failed to circumcise his own son (Ex.4:24-26), and in his anger, he smote the rock twice instead of speaking to it (Numbers 20:11). But what were “secret sins” he referred to? I don’t know, and it is possible that even Moses didn’t know until God shone the light of His countenance upon them. When we behold ourselves in the light of God’s countenance, we will see every unclean thing in us.
The Mirror of the Word
James said: “For if any man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholds himself, and goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner of man he is. But whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues therein, be being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed” (Js.1:23-25).
It takes the mirror of God’s Word and the light of His countenance to reveal what we are in our inner man— “the hidden man of the heart,” Peter called it (1Pet.3:4).
We are all most likely familiar with David’s public sins: adultery, conspiracy, murder, for which he received forgiveness when he acknowledged them in repentance. While he was given the distinction of being called “a man after God’s own heart,” he knew that there were some private sins—pecadilloes—from which he needed to be set free, and he prayed in Psalm 19:12-13:
“Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me; then I shall be upright, and I shall be innocent of the great transgression.”
This is a very powerful prayer, and one I pray often. First, David confessed that he needed the help of God to understand or discern his own errors (falling short of God’s way), and he asked to be cleansed from hidden faults. He did not mean this in the sense that he was hiding sin, but that he could not fully know them apart from God’s revealing them. No doubt, he was convicted in his heart for things that had caused him at some time or another to think, say, or do things that he felt were displeasing to himself, and by virtue of God’s greater holiness, to God. He was asking to be forgiven and for them to be washed away.
But he did not stop there. He recognized a propensity in his own nature to these un-named pecadilloes and foibles, because then he prayed to be kept back from yielding to them and from presuming wrong things. The Hebrew word translated “presumptuous” can refer to arrogance, and this is a common sin of the human heart.
David’s petition shifted into the future tense, and he earnestly pled: “Don’t let them have dominion over me! Don’t let them beset me, rule me, overpower me! Deliver me!” We can learn from David’s willingness to confess his pecadilloes—whatever they were, God knew—and to ask for His help in overcoming them.
Compare this prayer to his prayer in Psalm 17:3: “You have proved mine heart; You have visited me in the night; You have tried me, and shall find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.”
Suffice it to say, we could fill pages examining the pitfalls of the pecadilloes of the tongue, but we will focus instead on the source—the heart.
Jeremiah lamented: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the lord search the heart, I try the reins…” (refers to innermost part of a person), “even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings” (Jer.17:9-10).
The only way we can know the truth about our own pecadilloes is to allow God to examine our hearts. The Wiseman said: “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the lord weighs the spirits. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the lord ponders the hearts” (Proverbs 16:2, 21:2).
Clearly, it is not in the nature of man or the heart of man to see himself objectively without the aid of the Holy Spirit. He is sent not only to comfort and support, but to expose and reprove. And this, Friend, is a good thing! Don’t resist His prodding. Don’t ignore His promptings. Don’t dismiss pecadilloes by saying such trite things as, “I’m not perfect” or “I’m only human.” While these are true, and God certainly allows for our human weaknesses, He still seeks to elevate us to a greater accountability in our walk and consecration. To this end David prayed with confidence: “The lord will perfect that which concerns me…” (Ps.138:8).
Apostle Paul echoed this in one of his epistles: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil.1:6).
Granted, this means that God will always be working on us and in us, because we will always need working on. We can determine how much progress we make by how pliable and willing we are to tackle those hidden corners in the chambers of our hearts. Again, we offer David’s heartfelt words of prayer:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps.139:23-24).
Allow me to translate it this way: “See if there be any pecadilloes in me!”
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