Romans 8:38-39: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
What pit have you fallen into (or are stuck in)? Are you picturing God far off in the distance, shaking His head in disapproval, tapping His foot as if to say, "Seriously, you fell into that same sin AGAIN? How long are you going to hang out there this time? I wish you would get your act together. I'm so disappointed. That's it, I've had it! I'm out of here until you clean yourself up." Some have such a terrible misconception of God as if He only loves and approves of His children when they are following all of the rules and doing "right"; and we only have a certain number of chances to "get it right" before He bails out on us and deems us a lost cause.
Unfortunately, that is how most of us are. Fortunately, God is nothing like carnal man. If we could truly stop sinning on our own and clean ourselves up, would Christ have needed to die? How do we get out of our sin if God abandons us and does not sovereignly guide and lead us through and out of our sins? Know this, God does not lead us into sin, nor does He tempt us into it. We are tempted by our own carnal desires, and choose, with our own free will, to act upon them. We remove our hand from our Fathers, not the other way around.
But He has not abandoned you! If you have fallen on your face, returned to the muck and the mire, to the very same sin that has been luring and haunting you for what seems like forever, know that God still and will always love you, and is RIGHT there with you! He will never leave you, nor forsake you. You are His, and no one that the Father has given to our Lord will He lose! And even if we make our bed in Sheol, He is right there! - Psalms 139:8. “If anyone be in Christ they are a new creation. The old has passed away, behold all things have become new.”
When God looks at you, He sees you just as He sees His Son. He loves, values and approves of you, and that does not change! His love, acceptance and approval of you does not fluctuate with your performance or behavior. It is not measured by how good we are or determined by how well we "keep the rules". Many would say, "If people believe that, does it not give them a free ticket to sin?!" And I answer, only if they are not true born-again believers in Christ. It is God's unconditional love and acceptance that our souls so desperately crave. God demands obedience and holiness. “We are to be perfect as He is perfect.” – Matthew 5:48.
When we truly understand the love of the Father for us, chains fall off, captives are set free, and true believers, empowered by that pure love, are compelled to love Him back and follow His commands naturally and effortlessly through "want to" rather than "have to". This is the law of grace. Nothing you ever do will take our Lord by surprise. If you have fallen back into sin, instead of running from Him in shame and condemnation, fall into His loving, merciful arms. In Matthew 11:28: Christ said this, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Open your heart and allow Him to guide you into His rest as He transforms those broken places of your soul into beautiful stories of redemption, and watch as He uses your once broken vessel to do mighty and miraculous works to help restore the lost and broken to Himself. "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Rom 8:1
Listen, Jesus does the cleaning and we do the leaning. On Him. We cannot clean ourselves up. If we could we would still be dead in our sins. God is the ultimate life-giver and life-changer. We must seek God’s face, seek God’s wisdom and His constant unending love so that we learn to hate sin and to desire His righteousness. Anytime man deviates from God’s plan and purpose, we fail; every time. Since the Garden of Eden moral decay has been the compass of fallen mankind.
Shameful is not what we become, it is what we already are and that shame is only taken away through the blood of Jesus Christ. Through the wisdom and love of God, gained by being saved by His Son, we see God’s perfect plan for eternity. Seeing it, we must be diligent to walk in it! And at the times when we cannot walk – He will carry us through!
God knows and we know that we are not immune to sin because of our flesh, but relentlessly walking in the Spirit of God keeps sin from having dominion over us. But when we step out the boundaries of God’s Spirit, when we let go of His loving Hand, we are fair game with a large bulls-eye on our back.
The enemies have their bow and arrows ready at all times ready to strike against us. Our flesh, the devil and this world will offer up an endless barrage of immorality; everything sinful and self-indulgent, all you can eat. All it takes is a taste and then we have fallen out of fellowship with God and once again free fall into iniquity and disobedience.
But Jesus told us that He would never leave us or forsake us; that means even when we fall into sin. He will help us out. But, God has problems with those who willfully sin and have the attitude that they are good to go no matter what they do. They think going to church or a baptism or a confirmation or participating in church activities has them covered spiritually. That they have gained or bought a spot in heaven.
That their eternity is secure by some self-righteous acts or deeds or attitudes. They think that they can live how they want without consequences. Scripture is emphatic about how we should act, live, love and be. Like Jesus Christ. It is about our relationship with Him not our list of accomplishments.
It is about being sold out for Christ and not selling ourselves. It is about God first, not me first. It is about knowing what pleases and displeases God. Scripture makes it plain what pleases God. Love for Him and love for others. How can you ever be loving to God or someone else if you are tearing them down? How can you love if you are disobeying God? How can you love if you only love yourself? God has many ways of escape out of temptations and sins, but there are no exit signs in Hell.
Constantly love God as He constantly loves us! We have to start each day and end each night, making it a priority to think, pray and call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. If you call out to Christ when you rise, you can put on your armor of God before the world, your flesh and the devil can attack you. Do you start your day praising God for another day? Praising Him for all of the blessings in your life? Praising Him for the ability to make a difference for Him again? Or do you wake up with thoughts of dread, pain, sadness and overwhelming issues?
Nothing worse than being defeated before you step out of bed. Daily, hourly, moment by moment you make the choice to put your hand into Christ's and walk with Him or you beat the battered path of destruction, sin and the pitfalls of this fallen world.
Walking, seeking and resting in the Spirit of God brings you face to face with your downfalls; and you only conquer them when you live by and in God’s Holy Spirit. Because only through Christ and the profits of His Work on the cross for us can we overcome. Never try to face them on your own. Our strength is no strength; our way is no way.
They will only send you back into hopelessness, worry and self-doubt; damaging you emotionally and/or physically depending upon the sin that traps you. Remember the pit you have fallen into again or have been stuck in for years? But God is always there, waiting. He never walks away from us. We choose to ignore or walk away from Him because we want what we want, when we want it. If you are not in fellowship with the Holy Spirit flee from what tempts you and do not let yourself be subjected to temptations that lead you to sin.
You will not fall into the pit unless you walk toward it. When you confront the evils that haunt you, pray and make sure that you are in fellowship with the Holy Spirit to combat and find victory over the enemies of your flesh. But if you do fall into sin, confess it – do not harbor it and the virus that it brings. God waits for us to confess it!
1 John 1:8-10: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” Many people, saved people think that they no longer sin or are in danger of sin. What a lie of the devil that hurts so many people in this world! Temptation attacks our subconscious as well.
We have to not only guard our minds, our bodies, our eyes and our emotions, but we also have to guard our hearts from the desires that can creep in unaware. Everything that you view, hear and are subjected to everyday has an agenda or cause behind it. Proverbs 4:23: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Whether seductions are imposing or subtle; things that we run into as we function throughout the day, we must keep watch. Sin is our enemy and will do whatever it can to beat us down and keep us down.
It wants our fellowship just as God does. Listen, we all have thorns in the flesh, past regrets, hurts or sins that we committed or were committed against us that taunt us and we just cannot seem to get past them. With these, God is showing you issues and things in your life that you need to let go of so that you can attain true peace and delight walking in fellowship with God Almighty.
Ask Him in His strength to help you let go of what torments you. Hebrews 2:17-18: “17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.” Jesus understands!
Are you allowing yourself to stride in darkness or are you constantly and consistently seeking God's guidance to lead you in the light of His glorious grace? You cannot follow the Spirit and the world at the same time; you follow one or the other. If you are not following the Holy Spirit's lead, then you are out of communion with Christ and testing the waters of the world system that wants to destroy you physically, emotionally, mentally and eternally.
John 8:12: “12 Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” Why do we not use our great Comforter the Holy Spirit, sent by Christ in everything that we do? Why do we forget to seek His answers and guidance in every phase of our lives? If we are lost in the world, or lost in sin, or lost in ourselves, we cannot be found in Jesus Christ.
When you drive your car you do it with your eyes opened. What would happen if you closed your eyes? You would crash into something and it could be a minor fender bender, life threatening or could kill you. The same principle applies to your spiritual life. If you are not walking with the Spirit, if your spiritual eyes are not opened, heeding God’s council, you will crash head first into the sins and desires that will hurt or kill you. Sins we deem insignificant are very significant to God. Sin is sin and all sin must be taken to God for forgiveness, daily. God has cemented our faith in Him by the giving to us of His Holy Spirit that keeps us connected to Him for all of eternity. The gift of the grace of God's salvation gives us the Spirit of His love to help us in life.
1 John 4:13: “By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.” We are no longer condemned, no longer a slave to sin. We are redeemed and forgiven. We have to scream at those temptations, shout God's Holy Word as Christ did with Satan when he tempted our Savior in the wilderness. Galatians 5:1: “Stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled into slavery again with a yoke of bondage.” But, there is another facet to this. You have to want to let them go. That means that your pride and selfishness must dissipate. People will hold on to things that they just refuse to let go of or that they feel that they cannot let go of.
Let them go! You were crucified with Christ and have been made a new creation with Jesus Christ. The old is eradicated. Let it go! If the Great and Majestic God of our Creation, our Author and Finisher of our faith, the Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent God can forget our sins, then why can't we? Let these things go. Pray, speak to God, think on God, read God's Word, seek Him and call out to the Savior.
Christ said in John 14:6: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” So with that in mind, Jesus proclaims that He is the only way to the Father, the only way to Heaven, the only truth, the only way to peace in your life, and the only way to climb out of any struggle you are caught up in. He is the only way through life. That should be reassuring to know that you have a Creator, Mentor, Father, and Best Friend that will walk with you each step of your life. That is the beauty of the love of Christ. No matter how many times we mess up, backslide, or do something stupid, He is always right behind us waiting for us to fall into his loving arms. God knows that we will falter, even before we do so, but He knows our hearts and longing to become better for Him. We yearn to be free from ourselves to become all for Him.
Jesus will never leave us or forsake us. We either face Him or we turn our backs on Him and face the world. We must forsake the world and the destruction of it and keep our eyes looking at our Savior. Love Him and His Spirit as He loves you. Jesus Christ stands as the mediator between God and man. Salvation is from God, but man is to respond to His call and Jesus is the only bridge to connect man and God the Father.
Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.” The destiny of the human race was acknowledged by God’s love for it. Jesus acquired death to give us life; to give us God. 1 John 5:11: “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Let yourself be wrapped in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. God created you, He saved you; why not let Him protect, uplift and sustain you in everyday life? Do you seek religion or a relationship with the One True God?
We are relational beings created in the image of a relational God. He seeks your heart, not your performance. Hosea 6:6: “For I desire and delight in [steadfast] loyalty, rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” Listen, I never knew what true freedom was until I realized what the prison of sin is. Most of my life was spent bowing down into submission to the altar of the world and the sins of the flesh. But bowing down to Christ has brought me His love and a place with Him for eternity. Others who have not yielded in submission to God are still yielding to this world and eventually that will crush them and send them straight to hell if they don’t turn in repentance to Jesus Christ.
But this is where the beauty of the love of Christ comes in. No matter how many times we mess up, backslide, or do something irresponsible, He is always right behind us waiting for us to fall into His great and loving arms. That is why He is patient with us. He knows our desires, our callings, our gifts and what we will do for Him to bring Him glory before we are even conceived in the womb. I love Christ with everything within me. I just want my attitude, my life, my words, my works and my mind to follow to that accord. I have seen many tribulations and struggles in my life (many self-induced) and God has always, ALWAYS brought me through and brought me out.
I think every Christian that is truly saved goes through “darker” or silent times in their communicating with God. I have noticed that the people who say that they were “saved once” or tried the “Jesus thing”, never were saved to begin with. How do I know this? They never come back to Christ and do not seem to have any intention of ever doing so in the future. What I am saying is that true Christians fall. We are perfected in our Spirit, but our flesh is still cursed in this life. We fall very hard at times.
BUT, we always come back to God’s open, waiting arms. I had times that when I prayed, when and if I did, I felt as though I was praying to a wall. Or the air. My prayers felt so empty, like God did not hear or want to listen to me. As far as I was concerned, He should not listen to me. I do not deserve anything from God. What have I ever done for Him? Sinned? What do I deserve from Him? Death. Hell. Nothing.
When God is silent, I think that a Christian who believes – truly believes, learns. I have learned that silence from God is greater than any wisdom that man could ever speak. I know that falling as many times as I have is just more for me to gain in my experience with my Christian walk, jog, sprint, stop, walk, run…There is beauty at times in God’s “silent treatment”. Many people use this on others. Someone does or says something to hurt you – you give them the silent treatment until they beg for your forgiveness. Understand? I have hurt God so many times I am surprised that He speaks to me at all. But He does because He loves me. I still do not know why, but He does. Even through times of silence. He is always right here for us in and through everything.
What an amazing Father we have! Christ’s grace is much more sufficient than I could ever hope for. It would not matter if I did not want it, ask for it, or reject it. That would not matter. Jesus Christ gave it – so it is mine. Wow.
Listen with your heart, your mind, your spirit and your soul when God is silent. He will soon answer if you are truly listening to Him. I finally turned from my own hearing and thoughts and listened to the yearning in my heart, spirit and my soul. They were screaming for God to rescue me. Screaming for God to bring me back to Him. Screaming to fill them with His Holy Spirit. Screaming for Jesus to dust off my heart. Screaming to save me from myself. Screaming for Him to get me out of the pit I put myself in.
People tend to give up on love after their heart has been torn out and kicked around. They adamantly deny it, do not want it, but then, Someone opens the locked door and renews their faith in it. That Someone is Jesus Christ who offers you love and a life of chance to love Him back. Love for Jesus costs us nothing, but cost Him everything for you. His love never lacks, it runs out and it never fades for you. We just lose our faith in that constant and unending love. Jesus = love. If you do not know Jesus, you can know Him as your personal Savior right now. You can accept His free gift of grace. Everyone, please bow your heads with me and say this prayer and mean it with all of your heart:
“Lord Jesus, I come to You in prayer as a fallen sinner. I cannot save myself. I need Your forgiveness, I need You to save me from myself and my sins. I believe that You are God, that You lived a sinless life and died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the grave. I believe that You will give me a new heart and renew my mind. I believe that You are the only way to heaven. I ask You now Lord Jesus to please come into my life fully; I want to follow you and serve you forever. I ask this in Your amazing name Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.” If you prayed that prayer and meant it with all of your being, please see, or reach out to Stephanie and I. Congratulations! Welcome to the kingdom of God. Your choice just changed your eternity forever.
