Forgive and Forget

December 12, 2009 at 6:29 pm (Forgiveness)

1 John 1:9
“If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action].” AMP

Psalm 103:3;11-12
“Who forgives [every one of] all your iniquities, Who heals [each one of] all your diseases,… For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great are His mercy and loving-kindness toward those who reverently and worshipfully fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” AMP

We serve a God who longs to forgive.

It is part of who He is.

Out of His love He decided to send His one and only son so that we may be forgiven, we can never allow ourselves to trivialise this extraordinary act.

Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross so that we may have new life.

No matter how we look at it, it’s clear that God wants to wipe away our past so that we can live in His present.

But, even so, too often I will ask God for forgiveness without allowing myself the same freedom. I’d still condemn myself even though God has wiped away my past. I rejected the goodness of His grace, and decided to live in my own self-induced punishment.

But when God forgives us, our sin is gone. Regardless of how we feel, or what we think, or what we have done. Jesus’ blood on the cross has wiped it all away. His blood is more powerful than our emotions.

Recently I’ve been struggling with my own stubborn sin, and one thing that is clear to me, is that the more I hold onto my past, the more likely I am to relive it.

We’ve heard it said that forgiveness is freedom, this doesn’t just apply to our relationships with others, but also in how we treat ourselves.

Psalm 51 is David’s cry to be free from his sin after his adultress time with Bathsheba. Even though he had sinned, he knew that God’s forgiveness would remove it all.

We need to ask God to forgive us, let God forget it, and then follow His example in doing so.

Stay Strong.

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Have You Met God?

November 7, 2009 at 6:00 am (Relationships)

I have been increasingly overcome lately to try and open myself to discovering who God is. That is, both His divine nature, and who He is in relevance to my daily life and my daily actions.

One of the many catalysts for this desire is so that I can have greater vocabularly to worship God. For the vocabularly of praise isn’t words and sounds, but spirit and truth that hunger for God.

In Nehemiah 9, Ezra delivers this glorious praise to God

Nehemiah 9:5-8; 17; 19; 27-28; 30-33
“Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.
Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are Lord… You are the Lord God… you are righteous… you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abouding in love… because of your great compassion… in your great compassion… in your compassion… For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets… you are a gracious and merciful God… O our God, the great, mighty and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love… you have been just; you have acted faithfully” NIV

The praise goes for virtually the whole chapter, but as I read it, the revelations of who God was and is, grabbed me.

Time after time Ezra shouts forth the compassion of God, His faithfulness and His just nature.


If we are to have a relationship with the Almighty God our Father, it is natural that we will learn more about his astoundingly beautiful character. The best thing for us to do is as Mary did in Luke 2:19. We should treasure all that we have learnt about God deep within our hearts so that they can serve as our foundation.


The surest result of this, is that in times of doubt in times of trouble, the closeness of our present, continuing relationship with God and the remembrance of our Lord and Saviour will guide us and save us.

When we doubt, we know He is faithful.

When we hurt, we know He is good.

When we mourn, we know He is comforting.

When we stumble, we know He is merciful.

Psalm 42:5-6
“Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my saviour and my God.
My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you” NIV

David lived this out. When he went through his deepest valleys, he remembered God, he praised God and he trusted God.

Knowing who God is, not only exponentially deepens our praise life, but it strenghtens our relational life with God and it develops up in spiritual maturity.

It is a priceless gift of security in God that we can cling to.

Stay Strong.


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All You Need Is Love

October 31, 2009 at 6:00 am (Love)

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud. Love is not rude, is not selfish, and does not get upset with others. Love does not count up wrongs that have been done. Love takes no pleasure in evil but rejoices over the truth. Love patiently accepts all things. It always trusts, always hopes, and always endures. Love never ends. NCV

1 John 4:8
God is love. NCV

Genesis 1:26
Let Us make man in Our image NKJV

For me, when I see these verses side by side, it is a new revelation of how Good God actually is.

I know He loves me, but love without action is nothing, and here I get to see not only what alive love is, nor only that God is full of love, but that He IS love.

He is patient, He is kind….. He does not count up wrongs… He always trusts, always hopes, always endures…


Subsequently, we are made in God’s image.

We are made to reflect love.

God love.

To be a christian means to live as a little Christ.

We’re not called to act patient and kind on occasions, we were created to reflect God, to be love, therefore, to BE patient, to BE kind, to NOT BE jealous … They are meant to be part of who we are.

Deuteronomy 7:9
So know that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God. He will keep his agreement of love for a thousand lifetimes for people who love him and obey his commands.

On the other side. With God’s love, too often I find myself – despite knowing that God loves me – feeling compelled to keep His commands in order to get to His perfect love. But we are called to work from His love, not to it. In this verse I see it as no accident that love is placed before obeying His commands.

God is love, and His desire is to pour it into our lives.                                                                                                                  Our responsibility is to accept it, and to use it.

Stay Strong


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Cast Away

October 24, 2009 at 6:00 am (Stress)

I was spending time with the one and only Timmy G today and he led me to this verse.

1 Peter 5:7
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. NIV

It’s one that many of us have heard before, however, it is The Amplified Bible that makes it so much clearer and more confronting.

1 Peter 5:7
Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him. for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. AMP

The reason for giving God all our anxieties is that he cares for us. He is the Lord of our lives, He is in charge, He is our loving ruler who cares for us.

And we give him our anxieties because He cares about us too. Not just in the way we care about our friends, or care about our pets, or care about our hobbies, though they all matter, God’s care about us is so much deeper, stronger, and truer.

God cares for us. Like a father cares for his son.                              Deuteronomy 1:31

And God cares about us like a husband cares about his wife. Ephesians 5:25

And so we know we can trust Him with our problems.

The Amplified also reveals the extent to which we cast our anxieties.

We give him all our care, all our concerns, all our worries.

Once

and

for

all.

We give God our life and trust Him to deal with it.

Too often I find myself repenting and then continuing to condemn myself. Or too often I put my trust in God only to stir myself into fretting moments later. When we give our cares to God its a one way street. We give it all to Him, never to take it back. Such is the power of the Cross.

Hebrews 10:9-10
Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. NIV

Jesus Christ walked this Earth so that not only would our sin be gone forever, but so that our stresses and our burdens would be in God’s hands once and for all. So that we may truly live in the blessed Peace of God.

Cast your cares onto God, once and for all, and let him take control of them out of his never ending love for you.

Stay Strong.

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The Best Book Around

October 17, 2009 at 11:55 pm (Bible)

Jeremiah 6:8
Take warning, O Jerusalem, or I will turn away from you
and make your land desolate so no one can live in it. NIV

As I read this, the two words “take warning” stopped me.

It is the whole purpose for reading the bible.

We are to take warning of the consequences of sin, we are to take note of God’s perfect and pleasing path that He has set out for us.

The Amplified Bible says it this way,

Jeremiah 6:8
Be corrected, reformed, instructed, and warned, O Jerusalem,
lest I be alienated and parted from you, lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land. AMP

For whenever I feel separated or parted from God, I need to get into his Word. For whenever I feel like I need more in life, or that I’m missing God, then I need to get into his Word.

I need to study his good, old way and let it correct, change, reform, instruct, help, challenge and love me.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. NIV

Each word of the Bible is God-breathed, it has His Spirit flowing through it, therefore we can expect God to reveal himself to us each time we journey into the Bible. God will show himself as our Father, our Teacher, our Comforter.

Also, if each Word of God is God-breathed then we can expect to find God in it, that is, we can expect to find God’s peace when we are troubled, God’s joy when we are downhearted, God’s love when we feel condemned and God’s salvation when we are being persecuted.

This passage from 2 Timothy finishes by saying we may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

There is a direct link between reading God’s Word, and then living out God’s Word, otherwise it is like looking in a mirror and then immediately forgetting what we look like.

If we are to be believers in God we must run to his Word.

If we are to be disciples of God we must live out his Word.

Stay Strong.


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