I was....Wrong

I was wrong.  Deep down I knew I was wrong...but I did it anyway.  And this wasn’t the first time...I’ve done it before. 

Justifications swirled around in my mind, muffling the little voice that was trying to remind me to do the right thing.  Man, those self-righteous justifications sure are loud...aren’t they? 

Have you ever wondered why the voice of reason - the voice of truth - never seems as loud as those arrogant, sanctimonious voices that often drown it out?  Have you ever wondered where that subtle voice comes from and why it doesn’t just shout at you:

“Hey...dummy...yeah, you... STOP THAT!” 

Why does that voice speak so quietly when so many other voices are barking loudly around you?  I have asked that question - many times.  Always after the fact, I hate to say.  The catch is, if I listen to the right voice I don’t have to ask myself that question afterwards.  Yet somehow I find myself asking it time and again.

Have you ever done something that you were pretty sure was wrong, but you justified your actions to yourself?  Hard to drown your own voice out, right?  I know you have.  We all have.  It goes with the territory of being human.  We make mistakes.  Sometimes big ones.  Sometimes we do things that we feel like God couldn’t possibly forgive us for.  But He will, He does, He has.  If we have truly gone before God in prayer and confessed our sins, asked Him to forgive them truly from the heart, then we are fully forgiven....no questions asked!!! 

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

Don’t you wish it were that easy with people?

I know from personal experience that sometimes it doesn’t seem so simple to us.  We wrestle with those voices in our head that say God couldn’t possibly forgive us for something so horrible.  Those voices are liars!  Those voices are Satan-sent and want nothing more than to see you suffer and not TRUST GOD.  It’s at this point that I personally would like to say:

“Hey...dummy...yeah, you... STOP THAT!”   

(ok...I really don’t think you’re a dummy...just trying to make a point)

No matter what you have done, no matter how horrid you think it is, no matter how repulsive it truly is...God has already forgiven it if you’ve already sincerely asked.  What you are dealing with now is guilt.  Guilt is a powerful weapon in Satan’s arsenal.  I should know...I’ve been attacked with it over and over.  But God’s forgiveness trumps any weapon Satan has - every time.  You only need to have faith in God’s forgiveness.

If you aren’t sure how to come humbly, yet boldly before God to ask for His forgiving grace...keep reading.  As always, He has already given us the instructions.

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

God wants us to approach His throne with boldness...boldness He bestowed in us when we became His children.

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Guilt is nothing more than heavy chains Satan wants to keep draping around your neck as he pushes you closer and closer to the edge, hoping to push you over and watch you drown as they anchor you beneath the dark waters.  Matthew 11:28 tells us that God doesn’t want us to carry that weight around.  He wants our burden to be light.  He wants us to give that burden to Him.  Hand over the chains...they don’t belong to you anymore.

“Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.” (Psalm 55:22)

Jesus has already shouldered the sin, He has already paid the price of forgiveness, He has already bore your guilt as His own...He has done all of this through the blood that He shed for all of us on Calvary.

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” (Ephesians 1:7)

We still have to make amends for our wrongs, we will still have to face the consequences of whatever our actions bring, but that doesn’t mean God will never bless us again.  It does mean we are forgiven and we can go on knowing that by His blood, we are forgiven, we are healed of our transgressions, we are new in the eyes of Christ, all of our sins are passed away and our slate is wiped clean.  

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

“He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14)

Are You WEAK Enough?

I can bench press 200 pounds.  I once punched out a guy with one shot.  I am a champion arm wrestler.  And my mind...my mind is sooo strong...I remember everything I see and hear

....as if!!! 

I’m sure you have already figured out...I am NONE of those things.  What I am...is a note taker.   I’d forget things if I weren’t.  The catch is...I often will stick my notes in places and then forget them.  Trust me; the irony isn’t lost on me.  Anyway, just this morning I was thumbing through the pages of my Bible when I found some notes stuck between them.  In the name of complete disclosure there are easily 30+ bulletins from church with as many notes as will fit scribbled on them stuck between the pages of my Bible.  So finding notes isn’t that difficult...but this page of notes was different.  It wasn’t a bulletin.  It was a small 4x6 sheet torn from a notebook.  There weren’t forty or more sentences penned to this piece of paper.  No, there were literally five sentences written below a Bible passage that I had to look up again.  What really struck me though was the following sentence.

The heart of prayer is weakness; strong people don’t tend to pray.

Ouch...now that’s a bit of a slap in the face.  I have always thought of myself as a strong person.  Not physically, like the things listed earlier, so much as mentally and emotionally.  In my life, I’ve been through a lot and mentally/emotionally I’d say I’m pretty strong.   But strength isn’t what God expects of us.  Because when we are strong...we try to do things ourselves.  We don’t rely on God for strength.   I’m fairly certain that’s what I must have been thinking when I wrote those words down.  Strong people don’t tend to pray.  

There have been many times in my life that turmoil raged and I tried to handle it myself.  Over and over I have learned that until I fall to my knees, broken before God, knowing that I can’t do it all myself...I won’t be able to do it at all.  I am weak.  My strength alone is not enough...ever.  God wants us to see that.  I Corinthians 1:27 tells us “...God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.”  That includes us...thinking we are mighty.  Thinking we can do it alone.  Then along comes God’s strength and puts our puny “might” to shame. 

Personally, I have recently been dealing with some health issues.  Something I have been fortunate enough in my life to never have to deal with.  And I tried to handle it myself.  I went to the doctor.  I tried homeopathic remedies (which I prefer)...neither worked.  Until one day, only a few days ago, I lost it!!!  I was alone at home and I fell to my knees by my bed crying.  I didn’t have to say a word aloud...God heard my heart crying out to him.  Now, here I am, merely five days later and a remedy I had been trying previously suddenly is working.  I gave it to God.  I wasn’t strong enough on my own.  Why didn’t I read II Corinthians 12:9-10 earlier?  

“ And He said to me (“me” being Paul), ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’  Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  Therefore I take pleasure in my infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Paul was actually thankful for his persecution.  Even though he had prayed God would remove his “thorn in the flesh” but God did not.  He simple told Paul “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”  

I thank God for my weakness.  Without it, I would still be suffering in my own “strength.”  It isn’t just about physical strength and weakness though.  We suffer in hundreds of ways every day, ways that could be unbearable without God. 

Hebrews 11:32-34   “And what more shall I say?  For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Sampson and Jepthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdues kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant on battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens”

So ask yourself...are you weak enough to let go and let God?  For in weakness...we become strong.  It isn’t until we recognize our own weakness that accompanies this flesh that we are able to find our strength in Christ.

Genuine, Childlike Faith

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1

When I was pregnant with my second child people would often want to know if I was having a boy or a girl.  Since I wanted it to be a surprise I never asked the doctors to tell me.  However, my four year old son, Patrick, was certain that he knew.  Whenever someone would ask if I knew, my faithful little boy would pipe in boldly saying, “It’s a boy.   I know because I prayed and asked God for a brother.”  He was confident that he was going to get a little brother. He believed God for his promise that if we ask, we shall receive (John 16:24).   He had an attitude of faith that his request had already been granted even though he could not yet “see” this physically. James 4:2 states, “You have not, because you ask not…” Patrick asked and, low and behold, his little brother arrived.   Granted, we do have to be careful what we ask for sometimes.   There have been moments when I heard Patrick mumble “what was I thinking?” and other times, when Patrick is rather annoyed with Dade, the little brother he so faithfully awaited, I hear Dade quickly remind him “well, YOU prayed for me!”  (There’s nothing like brotherly love, is there?)

This childlike faith is required for us to receive the blessings that the Lord longs to give us.   When we pray and make a request of God we shouldn’t murmur to ourselves “I hope this works out.”  We should have the confidence in God that little children have. We should believe that our prayer has already been answered and wait patiently for God to bring it to us in HIS time.  At four years old, Patrick had no concept of the amount of time he would have to wait for his little brother, though he did often ask “how much longer?”  He simply believed that God would send him his request.  Never once did he question God.  I can’t lie, I found myself wondering how I would explain it to him in the event that his little brother turned out to be a little sister instead. My faith was not as genuine as Patrick’s was. Thankfully God took care of that one for me.

Looking back I realize that I simply lacked confidence in God.  And who am I to question the dependability of God? He has always been there for me.  Genuine faith is not professing that you believe… genuine faith is actually believing what you profess.   It is having confidence in the dependability of God...and who is more dependable than He is? 

Our Christian lives begin because of our faith in Jesus Christ, they are lived by faith and they end in faith.  Our faith is strengthened by spending time in God’s word, if we do this... it is guaranteed that our faith will grow and we will have more childlike confidence to ask the Lord for the blessings we long for…even the ones we think may be too much to ask.  Maybe it’s time that we stopped insisting our children grow up and start thinking about learning to be a little more like them...childlike in our own faith.

          Hebrews 11:1 is a well known verse.  Many Christians can quote it fluently, but quoting it isn’t enough...do you live it?  Do you truly have faith in God for the things you are hoping for, but cannot yet see?  How childlike is your faith?