Is this you? (It was me.) I meet many Christians who believe that God forgives them, but who really can’t forgive themselves. We padlock our own hearts with unrelieved blame and regret. It doesn’t have to be this way! In my experience we find it hardest to forgive ourselves over two kinds of sins: a) if we have deeply hurt someone we truly loved, or b) if we have wrecked our own life path with no visible means of remedy.…
We live in a real world that is also a moral and spiritual universe. Every thought, word and deed whether good or bad, right or wrong, intended or unintended, has consequences in our lives and in the lives that surround us. Blessings—the positive consequences—abound whenever we consciously or unconsciously “do the right thing.” The “curse of the law”—the negative consequences—arrive when we depart from God’s way or God’s truth (Deuteronomy 27-28).
“I will never get over this!” Really? That’s just what I used to think about all kinds of awful, evil stuff that had wrecked my life. But the Spirit of the Lord wouldn’t leave me alone. He kept reminding me about the promise of Romans 8:28. You know, the one which says that we know that God is working all things together for our good. Well, I didn’t know it. I couldn’t see how my past could possibly be made to work for my good. I…
You don’t have to fight the enemy in your own strength! To escape fear or any other assault by a negative emotion, don’t plunge into rebuking it first thing. That’s like trying to muscle your way through it, hoping to get past the obstacle that is coming between you and your sense of God’s peace and presence. It is true that sin and our agreement with it begins to separate us from God.but the enemy knows this too..
