Psalm 66:16-20

Come and listen, all you who fear God;
let me tell you what he has done for me.

I cried out to him with my mouth;
his praise was on my tongue.

If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;

but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer.

Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love for me!

The words "cherished sin" in this passage always make me stop and think. Do I really cherish sin? My friend, Webster, says that cherish is a verb: to hold dear; treat with care and affection; to keep deeply in my mind.

Why does it feel good sometimes to dwell on some hurt done to me instead of forgiving. I hold that hurt feeling dear to my heart and enjoy the way it allows me to feel better than the person that hurt me, cherished sin.

Or the wonderful "I'm something important" sort of feeling I get when I can pass on a bit of "information". I probably should repent of that bit of gossip, but it really was just so she could pray about it. And it felt so good to be able to be the one in the know and to make sure someone else knew that I was in the know. Cherishing...

Or how many times have I spent half my day talking to myself and telling myself just how justified I am at being upset with my husband for something he did or said. Something that probably wasn't that big of a deal, but the more I treat that thought with much care and affection something very small grows into a monster.

I thinking about cherished sin in my heart today. If it's there will God still hear my prayers?