Most of you know that I was saved at an early age in life,
but for many years growing up I had drifted from what I believed & from
what I was taught. I struggled with sin
and although I knew I wasn’t honoring God, I had trouble getting my life back
on track. You may be experiencing
something similar right now in your life. Think about it…is there something in
your life that you are struggling with? Do
you feel stuck?
During my time astray,(many years!) a couple things kept
going through my mind such as “why should I ask God for forgiveness when I know
I’m probably going to end up doing the same thing again”.... or, “I keep
disappointing God, and it’s pointless for me to pray to Him when I know I’m
going to sin again”. So, instead of
praying, I convinced myself it was better not to pray. It was better for me & God to just stay
away from Him altogether since I wasn’t living the way I knew I was supposed
to. BIG MISTAKE. Can I just tell you, that this way of
thinking is the devil getting into your head.
Where in the Bible does it say, “if you sin, do not come to me if you
plan on sinning again”? Where in the
Bible does it say, “If you are going to disappoint me again, then don’t bother
praying”? I’m telling you, this mentality
is so wrong, yet I am convinced that so many others, besides myself believes these
lies!
It’s actually the complete opposite. God wants us to come to
Him immediately after we have sinned. He doesn’t want our sin to fester…the
sooner we admit to him our wrongdoings, the sooner He can bless us. Don’t believe
the lies of Satan. God knows we are
going to sin again…He isn’t asking for perfection. I challenge you to go to God in prayer (even
if you don’t feel like it) & ask God for forgiveness even though you know
you are going to commit the same act again.
God will work in your heart & you will begin to feel a change within
yourself. The longer you delay, the more satisfaction you give Satan and the
more heart-ache you give the Lord.
Let me ask you this. Have you ever committed a sin so bad
that it deserved jail time? In the book
of 2 Samuel, David commits a horrible sin! One that would warrant a lifetime
sentence in today’s society. He
committed adultery with Uriah’s wife, & then had him murdered! This is the same David that killed Goliath…
the same David who God had made King over Israel! But listen to what his friend
Nathan said to him right after David admitted to his sin “The Lord has taken
away your sin” (12:13). There is NO SIN
TOO GREAT for God to forgive & NO SINNER TOO SMALL for God to save. Now due
to his sin, David’s son (which was conceived through adultery) died when he was
only 7 days old, but the Lord then blessed David with another son who rose up
to become a great man of God himself and eventually King over Israel: Solomon.
God can turn your worst mistakes into blessings. He is
waiting for you to come to Him in prayer & call out to Him for help. “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out,
that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19) I believed Satan’s lies for many years & kept ignoring
God.
