I'm writing this post to one specific person today! Why? Because I can ~ it's the benefit of "owning" the blog! It will likely apply to many of you...and I pray that others of you will also receive the message: NOTHING you have done is beyond forgiveness!
So, I have this friend who has been trapped by guilt and shame from a sin in their life. I know, I know, we are all sinners {Romans 3:23}, but this is one of those BIG sins! You know, the kind that you quantify as big because the majority of the population would agree that it is!
Only - there in is the lie! Not one sin that any of us has committed is bigger than another! They are all sin! They all prevent us from being in the presence of a Holy God if we do not have the righteousness of Jesus!
My friend thought that if they just worked hard enough, they could overcome the entrapment of this sin!
There is the second lie! Our work will never make us clean enough or cleanse our hearts without the atonement of Jesus! {Ephesians 2:8-9} Besides the enemy would love to have a foothold by making us think that keeping our sins a secret is best for everyone! {That is the third lie!}
The good news is you can be free! Come to Christ with a deep repentance for the sin that has entangled you...run from that sin...and live in His freedom! Return to the joy of your salvation!
I am praying for you daily!
I love you beyond measure ~ but He loves you more!
I am celebrating in victory with you!
Beautiful by Mercy Me
Listen to this song ~ absorb the lyrics ~ they are for you today!
Thanks for stopping by! Be Refreshed!
Great message! I hope you don't mind me expounding on it a bit. So many are bound by guilt. I was just dealing with this a bit ago in another forum. David murdered a man's wife so he could have her. (No he didn't commit the act, but he ordered it done, same thing, he still murdered him). I think we'd all agree that was a "big" thing. Yet David was a man after God's own heart. Why? I believe because he cried out to God so often. David truly struggled, but he constantly cried out to God and he hid nothing from God about how he felt. It's when we get that honest and transparent before God, that HE can really work in us. The devil would love us to believe that we've done something that is too big to be forgiven, because if we believe that lie, what we're really doing is limiting God's ability to heal and forgive. God has no limits on that. We human sometimes give up on a person, but God never does. Sometimes we all get really good at it......but remember........Our ability to sin is paltry compared to God's ability to love and forgive.
ReplyDeleteI would like to add something that I heard from our pastor on Sunday... God is the safest person to be open with. He is delicate and gentle with you, only cutting out the cancer and leaving everything else that is good intact. He is precise with His double-edged sword. He is not like the people we deal with, unless they are truly spirit-led, they will destroy you with their tactless ways of exposing your sin. God will not destroy you, He will lift the burdens from you, but if you do not allow God to expose your sins and redeem you, He will let someone else expose them instead. So run to Him, and do not dwell in them!
ReplyDeleteI was in that same cycle of guilt and trying to hide what was going on for years. God's loving forgiveness is so amazing and undeserved! It still brings me to tears when I think about how He loves us! No matter who you are, or who others perceive you to be, God knows the truth and chooses to love you wholeheartedly. I used to allow what others thought of me -being the wife of a pastor's kid- get in the way of dealing with the "big" stuff. It wasn't until the weight was so heavy that I literally couldn't get out of bed that I RAN to Him. He is a loving, patient Father who teaches and corrects with abundant grace!
ReplyDeleteRomans 5
"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Loving the comments!!! Obviously a topic for more than just my friend!
ReplyDelete