Thursday March 24, 2011

Read Daniel 9:15-19. Hosea 14:1-4. 1 John 1:9

Sometimes, often after we’ve sinned, we feel like a shipwrecked Christian. Sometimes we feel so hopeless that God couldn’t possibly use us. Sometimes we feel so ill equipped and so ill prepared that we could be of no real use in  this world or in the church. Sometimes we just feel distant from God.

Praise God! The good news is that God allows U-turns. God wants us to turn and to come back to Him.  God wants us to confess our sins and short comings to Him. He wants us to admit our failings. God is a loving and compassionate God. He will forgive us when we ask Him. He will love us freely and turn His anger away. God will welcome us back with arms open wide and receive us graciously.  Even more so, God will work in us to change us from the inside out. He will heal us of our waywardness, purifying us from all unrighteousness.  God will grow us and mature us, making us to be like Christ Jesus.  We were created in Him to be holy and blameless (see Ephesians 1) and God will do everything necessary to grow us in this direction.

Unconfessed sin, ignored sin or unrepentant sin in our lives is like a malignant cancer that eats away at our soul. It slowly but surely corrodes our relationship with God and drives us further and further from the light (John 3:20).  We will never stand up for the Lord and confess His name publicly while we are walking in unforgiveness. We will  never put our lives on the line for Jesus while we’re indulging our fantasies. There’s just too much to lose.  The cure is confession. The antidote is to ask for forgiveness.

God will wipe away your sinful record and love you freely the moment you confess your sins. He will embrace you and begin a powerful work in you. But He wants you to take the initiative. He wants you to genuinely ask for His forgiveness. His hand is already outstretched and waiting. Will you take hold?

Prayer:-

þ Pray that we would all seek the Lord’s forgiveness quickly after we fall into sin. Pray that the grace we receive from the Lord will be shared among us as we love each other with Jesus’ own love.

þ Pray that the unbelieving people in our world would see the love of Christ and be drawn to Him for salvation. Pray that God would use us to share that love with these people.