Sunday 14 October 2012

Love you with everything

Something came up in one of my meetings last week; it was inside of a discussion of Kay Arthur’s words in our study guide.  It had to do with sinning, with repentance and forgiveness.
   
I am all about asking for forgiveness of sins, past and present, but once this is done, we do not have to keep asking for forgiveness; forgiveness comes once and for all.  We need to stop fighting a battle that has already been won.  Unless of course we want to go back to the battle time and time again…sinning again, the same sin again, and again. This is a different issue, but if you have asked for forgiveness and gone forward sinning no more, then that is it…done, the battle is won. Do not be guilted, bombarded, pounded with not being good enough…you are done, it is finished, the battle is won.

It is finished, I love that.
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Stephen brought up an interesting point in his sermon Sunday morning.  He talked about the Israelites coming out of Egypt only to enter the desert for 40 years and then to be given a so called promised land, a land that was promised but not so promising, a land of milk and honey, but not so much. It was a dry land just a step better than the desert they came out of, there was little rain and this land was filled with giants. So these people of God went from slaves in Egypt to wandering in a desert to a land that was filled with giants.  Each step required faith and trust to believe God. Now, these were hard steps to take, to believe God, to trust Him, they had a hard time doing it, some of them never did, some of them never made it into that promised land.

And then Stephen pointed out that this is how God leads us, even today.  He takes us from a situation that is hard, a situation where we have nothing to do but trust God to a place where all we have is to trust God! This is what God does; He makes promises that require us to trust Him, to depend on Him.  Think about it, each new accomplishment, each small failure, each giant step and every small step that we take puts us into a situation where we need to trust God again.  Trusting God never ends.  Trusting God is a never ending story of faith, of love, of peace and joy.

Asking for forgiveness frees us, trusting God saves us, and believing Him is life.

I want to live this way; free, trusting, believing…living; with every breath I take, with every step I make.

“…every breath, every moment life beats in my chest, let my life praise you…
                                                     love you with everything.”                                                                                                                                   Gungor
                                                     
I love that.