| The Ministry The Author The Book The Audio [ HOME ] |
|
|
WEEKLY ENCOURAGEMENT
Updated: Tuesday, October 7, 2008
INEFFECTIVE IN THE PRESENT
"Never let the sense of past failure defeat your next step." I recently read this sentence and it really struck a note with me. How many times in the past I have spent hours and even days regreting mistakes and wrong choices. It is so easy to constantly think, "If only I had or I had not......". We find ourselves in circumstances that are not what we planned or hoped for, circumstances that are unpleasant and even painful. All of this can cause us to become ineffective in the present. We become burdened with regret, or guilt and fear. If we will just step back a little and think about this, we would see immediately that these feelings are not from God. There is a major difference between regret and repentance, guilt and conviction, and fear and faith.
We have all made some wrong choices and and I'm sure there are things that we all regret or wish we had done different. If sin is involved, the Holy Spirit will speak to our hearts, not in a vague, bad feeling sort of way, but in a very clear, voice about what we have done wrong. Regret is not repentence. Repentence is recognizing we have gone against God's will, and yield to His authority and then asking for forgivness. Fear, can not co-exsist with faith in God and His promises.
Consider this example. A young child comes to the stage of learning to walk. He can stand pretty well and so he ventures off to walk, a few steps go well, and then he hears the neighbors dog bark, it scares and distracts him and he falls down, right on one of his own toys. That hurts!
Now, he could stay on the floor and cry over the hurt his toy caused. He could be so fearful that he might fall again that he doesn't even try to get up. He could think about the barking dog, and what could happen if he got into his house, and so on and so on. But we all know children get up and try again, and again and again until they master walking.
Yesterday is gone forever. It cannot be undone or reclaimed. Words can not be taken back or decisions reversed. Let it go! Give it and whatever wrong you may have done into the hands of God. If you need forgiveness, then repent of the sin and accept God's forgivness. It is never based on our deserving it, but totally on His faithfullness and on our postion in Christ.
"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
"As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."
Psalms 103:12
The mistakes of yesterday are there to help us recognize our dependance upon the Lord for ALL things and for us to draw closer to Him. Don't let Satan use them against you, but rather choose to let God us them for our good and to conform us to His image.
Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow may never come. So, set your eyes on Jesus Christ, set your heart on His word and set your will to be obedient TODAY. The power to do His will, is supplied by His precious Holy Spirit. Remember, the devotion from last week? Plug into the power source! May you have a very blessed day, living in the reality of who God is in this day that He has given to you.
"This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalms 118:24
If you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, I urge you to turn to Him. You have no forgivenss, no peace, no hope for the future without Him. But He is there for you if you will turn to Him.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
John 3:16
"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
Acts 4:12
|
- Sandy Hastings |
|
